The first thing I learned is that the horses run in a random order. They do not start with hip #1. They also included some horses from the supplement on this first day. The pace is about 30 horse per hour. After about 50 horses they pause 15 minutes to rework the track.
About 2/3 of the horses work 1/8 of a mile, the other third go 1/4 of a mile. I guess because this sale was delayed about 2 months, more horses are choosing 1/4 mile. In the first 50 the fastest 1/8 was 9.4 by an Into Mischief filly. Two colts by Blame and Quality Road worked 20.4 for 1/4. The slowest times were 10.4 and 22
The times are only reported in 1/5 of a second. It would seem that they could report 1/100 of a second, but you are just left to guess. Some horses seemed to get a little bit of a running start, especially in the 1/4 mile works. The camera angles are not great, and the video was a little choppy. There was a wind report with each work. It warmed up about 10 degrees in the first two hours. The wind varied from 0 to 4 mph during the works. Some horses were a little green with some head tossing, and one Orb filly lost the rider in the runout. There was not much use of the whip, just one touch at the beginning
The surprising work of the first group was an Ironicus filly that worked 21, tying for the 3rd fastest with several others. One of my favorite Carpe Diem’s went a disappointing 21.4. My Kentucky Oaks hopes were crushed in the first few hours.
You could make a guess about the relative size or each horse, but it was hard to draw too many conclusions. Many times horses I thought had a nice long stride had slower works, and the busy looking horse had the better times. It will be interesting to see if I can eventually learn more from these videos.
Then just to make things more confusing one of my most favorites Carpe Diems was the first to work 3/8 ths of a mile. The problems is her time of 33 and 2/5 cannot be compared to anything. Just to stop my complaining about 5 horses later a Curlin filly also worked 3/8’s in 34 2/5. Given her stud fee was $175,000 that cannot be too exciting.
So after 3 hours I am not sure what I learned. Maybe I saw a future Derby champion, maybe I did not see a single stakes horse. Only time will tell.
Buying A Race Horse 