Thoroughbreds: Horses of A Different Color – How Do Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses Differ?

Thoroughbreds: Horses of A Different Color – How Do Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses Differ?

Background

Thoroughbreds (and Thoroughbred racing) came to the Americas with Colonists from the Old World, most notably those from the British Isles. The Quarter Horse is a purely American invention, the result of a cross between English Thoroughbred stock and the Native American Chickasaw breed, and was gaining popularity in America by the 1700s. Both breeds are quick and powerful, precision-engineered through generations of breeding to be world-class athletes. But each breed is best at different “athletic events.”

The Quarter Horse

The Quarter Horse was far-and-away the most common working horse in the American West and has swept the field for generations at Western events such as barrel racing and cattle roping. But it wasn’t until 1940 that the Quarter Horse was recognized as an official breed with the formation of the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), now the largest breed registry in the world.

Quarter Horses are fairly short, usually 14 to 15 hands (each hand equals 4 inches), and heavily muscled. The Quarter Horse physique is unmistakable—these are stunningly powerful animals bred for hard work and speed over short distances. Typical Quarter Horse physique includes a small, refined head and defined, well-muscled shoulders and hindquarters. The Quarter Horse, which got its name from an early designation as “The Quarter Miler,” can run a quarter of a mile at speeds a great as 55 miles per hour, but his heavy, tightly muscled frame tires quickly over longer distances. The Quarter Horse is a sprinter at high speeds and a stayer at slower speeds, bred for roping and riding the trail.

The Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred, as a European granddaddy of the Quarter Horse breed, has a much longer pedigree (stretching back to Arabian stallions imported to the British Isles during the years of the Crusades). The breed, along with organized racing, were well-established by the time high-brow colonists brought racing traditions (and breeding stock) with them to the new world. The lighter Thoroughbred stands 15.2 to 17 hands, with a broad, muscular chest. Thoroughbreds are made for speed over longer distances, with a racing heritage that stretches back hundreds of years.

Cowboys and Kings

Quarter Horses are the cowboys of the racing world, and Thoroughbreds the nobility. Stolid Quarter Horses can outstrip Thoroughbreds in sprint races, but fleet Thoroughbreds will win a longer race (almost) every time. Both compete in sprint races, hunt shows, even gymkhana meets. But Thoroughbreds dominate the “professional” racing world, and Quarter Horses the Western circuit. Occasionally, two representatives from these long-lived equine families will meet in a match race of epic proportions. If it’s a sprint race, our money just may be on the Quarter Horse. But for any distance longer than a quarter mile, we’ll place our bets on our beloved Thoroughbreds, horses bred and trained to live and breathe racing.

Blinkers On

Blinkers On Racing Stable, a leader in thoroughbred horse racing partnerships, brings together the finest in thoroughbred horse racing expertise with the best in business know-how, and above all, a team of people you can trust, to manage your investment. We are committed to helping you experience the joys of thoroughbred horse ownership. For more information on thoroughbred partnerships visit our website or request an information package about our partnership. Keep up with horse racing in California by reading our Blog, finding us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, checking us out on LinkedIn, or visiting our YouTube Channel!

 

Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame Honors the Sport’s Upper Echelon

According to the National Museum and Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame website, “The mission of the Official National Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame is to honor the achievements of those horses, jockeys, and trainers whose records and reputations have withstood the difficult test of time.” On Hall of Fame Day 2010, the Hall of Fame included 186 Thoroughbreds, 93 Jockeys, and 88 Trainers. Owners, despite their unique brand of contribution to Thoroughbred racing, do not have a home in the Hall of Fame.

Horses

Hall-of-Fame horses include such greats as Top Flight, Seabiscuit, and Man o’ War. Top Flight, a Tom Healey-trained filly inducted in 1966, beat out Domino’s 39-year standing record for the highest 2-year-old earnings in the business. Seabiscuit, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1958, was a repeated champion who, after an injury at 6 years of age, made a moving comeback at the age of 7 in the Santa Anita Handicap against Kayak II. Man o’ War, widely considered the greatest Thoroughbred who ever lived, set easy records in the Preakness, the Belmont, and the Travers; won the Dwyer Stakes, Stuyvesant Handycap, and Jockey Club Gold Cup; and was retired to stud where he sired a stunning 64 stakes winners.

Trainers

Trainers inducted into the Hall of Fame include legendary horse whisperers like John Rogers, Frank “Pancho” Martin, and M.E. “Buster” Millerick. Rogers had stunning wins in the Preakness and the Belmont with Buddhist, Tanya, Artful, and Burgomaster, among a string of other Thoroughbred champions, and was inducted as part of the Hall of Fame’s “inaugural class” in 1955. “Pancho” Martin, who through 2009 has won “3,284 races and purses totaling $46,881,516,” was the industry’s leading purse winner in 1974, New York’s leading trainer from 1973 to 1982, and has raced multiple champions against such greats as Secretariat. “Buster” Millerick, inducted in 2010, trained West Coast Thoroughbreds for almost 50 years, from 1935 – 1984, winning a total of 1,886 races and training 54 individual stakes winners

Jockeys

Legendary jockeys inducted into the Hall of Fame include such household names as Pat Day and Randy Romero, and historical legend Willie Simms. Pat Day mounted 40,298 Thoroughbred athletes and won 8,803 races between 1973 and 2005, including Hall of Fame inductees Lady’s Secret, Dance Smartly, and Easy Goer and the famous 1992 Kentucky Derby long shot Lil E. Tee. Randy Romero won riding titles at 10 separate tracks including Arlington and Belmont, won Breeder’s Cups on the legendary fillies Go for Wand and Personal Ensign, and rode 4,294 winners out of 26,091 mounts in the years 1973 to 1999. Willie Simms, who rode from 1887 to 1901, had Belmont, Preakness, and Kentucky Derby wins on different mounts, and led all American Jockey’s in wins the year 1894 with an unprecedented 33% win record. Jockeys with these talents and credentials make racing possible, connecting the indefatigable strength of a Thoroughbred champion with the know-how of a world-class trainer to create a racing powerhouse.

Blinkers On

Blinkers On Racing Stable, a leader in thoroughbred horse racing partnerships, brings together the finest in thoroughbred horse racing expertise with the best in business know-how, and above all, a team of people you can trust, to manage your investment. We are committed to helping you experience the joys of thoroughbred horse ownership. For more information on thoroughbred partnerships visit our website or request an information package about our partnership. Keep up with horse racing in California by reading our Blog, finding us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, checking us out on LinkedIn, or visiting our YouTube Channel!

 

Physiology of a Thoroughbred

Physiology of a Thoroughbred: Top 5 Aspects of picking Winner

Picking a winner is both an art and a science, one that we at Blinkers On strive to perfect. It’s a mix of physiology and physiology of a thoroughbred, a skill passed down through horse-loving families generation after generation. The process is notoriously inexact – just ask anyone who bet against Mine That Bird, the gangly little long-shot that won the 2009 Kentucky Derby!

There are a few internal bits of the Thoroughbred racing machine that you just can’t see. A horse’s heart is as big physically as it is metaphorically. The average is about 16 to 18 pounds, but Triple Crown winner Secretariat’s weighed a stunning 22 pounds! A horse’s large spleen is also a central part of its adaptation to running – the spleen stores oxygen-rich blood and releases it as a horse gets up to speed, literally thickening the blood and upping its oxygen supply.

But since you can’t take a horse apart at the saddling paddock, let’s concentrate on what you can see.

Parts of a Horse

Horses are made to run, and each part of their physiognomy is a marvel of genetics and breeding. So, from top to tail:

The horse’s nose and neck are long and broad, funneling large quantities of oxygen into the body. The shoulders and withers (top of the shoulders) are broad and well-muscled, the body long, broad, and barrel-chested to enclose large lungs, that big heart, and the precisely adapted spleen. The back and hocks are finely muscled for control and balance, the rump and stifle thickly muscled for power and speed.

A horse’s legs are stunning, living examples of precision engineering. According to a 2006 press release by the American Physiological Society, to approximate the force a horse’s legs take when they hit the ground in full stride, a human would have to balance on one finger!

To talk about a horse’s legs the layperson needs a dictionary (or at least a good source) – the portion of the leg just above the hoof is the pastern, which connects to the ankle. The longbone in the lower leg is the cannon. In front, the muscular forearm rises above the cannon, with the knee joint between and the broad shoulder above. In the rear, the hock connects the cannon to the gaskin, or upper leg, above which rises the flank and rump. For maximum stability and power, a Thoroughbred’s knee should sit squarely over the cannon when viewed from any direction, and the slope of the shoulder and the pastern should follow about a 45-degree angle.

Selecting the Horse for Your Wager: The Top 5 Indicators

1. Watch a horse’s eyes. Look for an animal with a bright, calm, interested gaze. Rolling or darting eyes can indicate excessive anxiety, while lazy or dull eyes can indicate a lack of interest and a horse that’s not “on”.
2. Check for white foam between the back legs and behind the saddle pad. “Fizzy,” nervous horses can be keyed up before and during races, wasting precious physical resources on anxiety instead of speed. This foam is known as “kidney sweat” and can indicate a horse that’s frightened or angry instead of ready to race.
3. Look out for “washing out.” If a horse is covered in sweat, especially in cooler temperatures, you may be looking at a frightened or anxious animal that’s too keyed up to focus on the race. In hot temperatures a horse may break an honest sweat before the race begins, but if the day is mild and your choice looks like he’s already run a couple furlongs, take your money elsewhere.
4. Watch the ears. A horse’s ears can help identify whether the animal is “sharp,” alert, and ready to race, or whether he’s anxious or frightened (in which case the race is lost before it’s begun). A horse that’s sharp and alert may sweat or fight, but his ears will remain pricked and upright. A frightened or scared horse will have ears “pinned,” pressed back against the head.
5. Put it all together. A horse can be the perfect racing machine, but if he wastes all his reserves fighting his handlers and his jockey, he probably won’t blow the others away. A “sharp” horse may sweat, dance on his toes, even push his handlers, but his demeanor will be eager, his ears pricked, his neck arched – playful rather than fractious. An angry or frightened horse, awash with sweat, showing flattened ears, is a different beast altogether. The former can carry you all the way to the bank. The latter will sell you short every time.

Visit the paddock before placing your bets every chance you get. Watch your horse from top to tail and get a feel for his body language. If he’s engaged, awake, ready to go – but not a keyed up bundle of nerves – your chances increase exponentially.

If, on the other hand, he’s washing out, fizzy, and shows those rolling eyes and flattened ears, think again. Keep in mind, these horses can sometimes blow the competition away. But when your money’s involved, make sure to bet on a horse that’s likely to win.

Remember the kid’s song? “Head, shoulders, knees and toes…” There’s a little bit of ageless wisdom there. Hum a little tune to yourself and you may up your chances of choosing a winner. But remember… even the exercise physiologists who study physiology of a thoroughbred horses can’t pick a winner every time.

Blinkers On

Blinkers On Racing Stable, a leader in thoroughbred horse racing partnerships, brings together the finest in thoroughbred horse racing expertise with the best in business know-how, and above all, a team of people you can trust, to manage your investment. We are committed to helping you experience the joys of thoroughbred horse ownership. For more information on thoroughbred partnerships visit our website or request an information package about our partnership. Keep up with horse racing in California by reading our Blog, finding us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, checking us out on LinkedIn, or visiting our YouTube Channel!