Training of standardbed maiden pacers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to quantify training practices used by leading trainers of standardbred maiden pacers in New Zealand. Ninety-five of the top 100 trainers (ranked by number of wins in the previous year) were interviewed about the preparation and racing phases of their training. The duration of the preparation period was 13.6±2.8 weeks (mean±SD). Most trainers (72%) had two phases of training in this period; the remainder had either three (26%) or four (1%) phases. In the initial preparation phase most trainers (88%) followed a training program of daily jogging, with one day off each week; in the final preparation phase most trainers (84%) alternated days of jogging and hoppling, with one day off each week. For the racing phase trainers were asked to provide information on daily training between fortnightly races; in this phase 66% of trainers continued to alternate jogging and hoppling. Jogging work-outs, which did not differ substantially between phases, lasted 37±8 min (mean ± SD) at 19.6±3.9 km/hr. Hoppling workouts were mostly over distances of 3200 m; they increased in speed from 38.7±3.0 to 43.0±1.8 km/hr over the final preparation phase, and from 40.2±4.4 to 42.0±2.4 km/hr over the fortnight of racing. Training loads generally appeared to be light relative to those of comparable human athletes. Correlations of training practices with the rank order of trainers indicated that winning was linked significantly (P<0.05) to having more horses (r=0.48), more maidens (r=0.36), and more than two preparation phases (r=0.22), but not to any aspect of training load (|r|=0.00–0.13). We conclude that only large changes in training load are likely to affect the success rate of trainers.