Equestrian equestion: Are 'mudders' born to be mudders...?

Question

Or are they trained to be good rain-runners?

Answer 1

Some horses seem to have a good ability to balance on slick ground. They aren,t always as fast as the ones who go best on a dry track but they have good balance and traction, and don't mind the crap flung in their faces as much. This may be born in, but it can be trained to some degree. Mostly it is temperment and balence.

Answer 2

I think there is some genetic predisposition for a horse to have superior performance on muddy tracks, but like everything in racing, this is a complex subject.

First off, tracks vary a great deal in their composition, and as a result vary greatly in how they are affected by rain. Aqueduct is supposed to have a very high percentage of sand in its composition, and as a result when it gets wet, the track behaves like a beach: it packs down and gets harder. Churchill Downs has always had a very high percentage of clay/loam in its composition, and when it gets wet, it first gets "cuppy" and then deeper and stickier.

In some tracks which use pea gravel in the base and which are heavily sloped or countoured, heavy rain can wash away the cushion from the outside and wash pea gravel into the cushion on the inside part of the track. This isn't good-- the pea gravel that gets flung up by the galloping horses can hit horses and riders in the face, and horses have lost eyes as a result of this.

Also to be factored in nowadays: in many locations, if the track superintendent has the time, he will roll the track with heavy equipment to "seal" it before rain comes, then harrow the track after the rain to recondition it for racing. But over time, if storm follows storm, a track that has been "sealed" repeatedly may become compacted and harder than it was before the storms came.

So given that different racetracks react differently to rain, no horse or specific line of horses is going to like all muddy tracks.

In general, a horse that runs well in the mud has to be tolerant of getting mud and water splashed in his/her face if he/she isn't a front-runner. A lot of horses don't like getting hit with mud and will throw their heads up, "spit out the bit" (come off the bridle), and back up out of the pack.

The horseman's "old wive's wisdom" about mudders is that horses with sore joints will sometimes move up on a muddy track, because the mud isn't as jarring as a dry track and so they hurt less. Similarly, the received wisdom is that horses with tendon or ligament problems don't do well on a muddy track, because there is more strain on their tendons and ligaments pulling out of the mud as they move.

The bottom line is that there are so many factors involved in whether a horse likes a wet track, that it comes down to individual animals rather any particular bloodline. The trainer can do some things to aid a horse in running on a wet track, but I don't think any trainer has an edge over any other in this particular area.

And it's going to be a moot point anyway as more tracks move to Polytrack or Tapeta-like artificial surfaces, which are consistently the same whether they are wet or dry.

(FWIW, if I were handicapping a race on the mud, I'd look for a horse with known front-runner past performances, because it seems that front runners win more often on the mud-- they're the ones who avoid getting mud kicked in their faces.)

Answer 3

yes it is genetic and their was a trainer at Bay Meadows that was pure greatness for mud Brian Webb he might be in Florida money in the bank

Answer 4

usually they are born to be mudders