Body & Soul: How Classic Winners Measure Up

[Wandering Eyes]

Like many a 6-year-old in 1951, your correspondent’s world was suddenly turned upside down with the arrival in our family apartment in Queens of a strange piece of furniture with a window which, when clicked on, brought up all sorts of things from movies to newscasts to baseball games and something called I Love Lucy. But two years later, quite by accident, there appeared on the screen a grey ghost on four legs running around a racetrack in a distant place called Kentucky finishing second to a black horse (not a color TV, obviously) in a race which, we were told, was the “fastest two minutes in sports.”

Native Dancer losing the Kentucky Derby was our introduction to this game as well as our obsession with the Triple Crown that has defined it for so many generations. We became addicted to newsreels of War Admiral, Omaha, Whirlaway, Count Fleet and Citation winning the Crown, all narrated by the great Clem McCarthy.

At the rambunctious age of 15, we invited a friend to ride our bikes 10 miles from Astoria to Ozone Park where our Uncle Joe had a parking lot at the clubhouse turn of some place called Aqueduct.

Because of age restrictions, we were not allowed into the track, but Uncle Joe allowed us to stand on the hood of a huge pink Cadillac convertible to witness what turned out to be Victoria Park winning the Remsen. We were so overwhelmed that we came back the next year on the same day and the same Cadillac perch allowed us to witness Victoria Park’s stablemate Northern Dancer accomplish the same task. We were crushed when he lost the Belmont S. the following June.

To say we were hooked is an understatement because, by the time we were compelled to write our major project in journalism as sophomores in college, we were able to achieve the only Grade A of our undergraduate career with a 105-page tome titled The History of Horse Racing in America. The professor was a 60-year-old editor at the New York Daily News and may have been a closet racing fan because he liked the paper despite most classmates having snickered when it was handed in.

Fast forward 20 years or so, when your correspondent was getting involved professionally in this game and quite by accident was also introduced to the art-plus-science of equine biomechanics. Our first lesson was about Phenotypes, and we were shown how measuring a horse and computing the growth curve algorithms involved could alter one’s impressions, and perceptions, of how a racehorse is structured (bio) and what that means about its true racing aptitude (mechanics).

As it turned out, the early 1980s was the dawning of a new era in the evolution of the Thoroughbred racehorse, which is sharply illustrated by the sudden shift in the Phenotypes of winners of the individual Triple Crown races compared to the previous two decades (and though lacking data, by inference, the previous half-century).

O.K. “Lucy, ‘splain.”

For example, “to the eye,” most of the winners of Triple Crown races over the years appeared to be the same “type,” i.e., an average-sized horse with good power, good stride extension and enough body weight to process the energy needed to get the distance. Indeed, here are the Phenotypes of every single Classic race winner from the 1970s in our database–only one was way out there as a lightly-made individual. The rest were either heavily tilted toward the Stride quadrant or very well balanced between Stride and Power.

Now, look what has happened in the 1980s. There is still a preponderance of Stride mechanics, but there is also a sharp shift toward lighter bodies, horses that in the past were mostly more efficient as milers. Indeed, it was in the 1980s that trainers began to show a preference for larger horses, many of which were more lightly bodied than previous generations.

By the time the 1990s were completed, the shift toward Power-types had been strongly established, and the lightly-made contingent continued to be prominent.

Now look what has happened in the past two decades.

While this research gives us a good overview of the shift in the aptitudes of the breed over the past half-century or so, we were curious as to whether there were individual biomechanical components that were common to a majority, or large number, of Classic winners in the past two decades. What we found was quite interesting.

92% of them have very good to excellent power. The relationship between the length of the back cannon to the bone lengths of the upper leg (tibia) and hip is how Power is generated. Power is speed, and a horse needs speed in the Classics to get position and finish.

72% of them have good to excellent stride extension. This is combination of factors that expresses how well a horse can extend his stride length without interference. Fair or poor extension may cause a horse to interfere with itself and therefore lose stride rhythm (or action). Therefore, a good trip is essential for horses with fair or poor extension.

46% of them have uphill trajectories–higher at the elbow than at the flank and/or longer front legs than rear legs. These factors or combinations are often very desirable in turf horses, but in Classic races they also give somewhat of an advantage. If combined with good power, a horse can reach out early to establish good position and rhythm and pounce when ready.

30% of them have downhill trajectories–lower at the elbow than at the flank and/or shorter front than rear legs. These factors or combinations are very desirable in front-running sprinters or milers–some of which can control the pace to their ultimate advantage in two-turn races. However, this combination is also very common in horses who need to settle and build momentum and appear to go into downhill drives late.

100% of them have rear triangles that are geared for quick starts and excellent finishing kick. The rear triangles are formed by the ilium, femur, and tibia, and these deliver most of the power and efficiency of a horse. A study of our database shows that Classic type horses prior to the 21st Century tended to have longer tibias than iliums and femurs, a combination which enhances the ability to carry speed over a distance of ground through momentum. When all three are of equal length, or the tibia is shorter than the ilium and femur, late quickening is enhanced. This is more common in turf horses, but over the past two decades as the breed has become more diversified in aptitude as well as pedigree crosses we’ve seen it more and more in dirt performers.

There you go, Lucy–Classic winners, ‘splained.

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