Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Training Thoroughbred Horses
    Training Thoroughbred Horses
    Training Thoroughbred Horses
    Ebook175 pages1 hour

    Training Thoroughbred Horses

    By Preston M. Burch

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Preston M. Burch, considered one of America’s most distinguished horsemen, summarizes his observations in this book in logical progression, for the benefit of both the novice horseman and the experienced professional.

    His approach to training Thoroughbreds is eminently practical, and readers will gain a new appreciation of the many details of racing stable operation.

    Training Thoroughbred Horses includes chapters on:
    The Selection of Racing Material
    Breaking Yearlings
    Training 2-Year-Olds
    Training 3-Year-Olds and Older Horses
    The Condition Book
    Stable Management
    Feeding
    and many other aspects of the operation of a racing stable.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGolden Springs Publishing
    Release dateAug 9, 2016
    ISBN9781787200609
    Training Thoroughbred Horses
    Author

    Preston M. Burch

    Preston Morris Burch (August 25, 1884 - April 8, 1978) was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer, breeder, and owner. He spent over 50 years as a successful trainer at the leading race tracks of America and Europe.

    Related to Training Thoroughbred Horses

    Related ebooks

    Horses For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The 6 Ways Horses Learn

      Aug 25, 2020

      The 6 Ways Horses Learn
      11 min read

    • Article

      Digestive Health To Go

      Aug 8, 2022

      Digestive Health To Go
      4 min read

    • Article

      Build Your Ground Skills

      Dec 5, 2020

      Build Your Ground Skills
      10 min read

    • Article

      PLAYING POLO: GILES ORMEROD says…

      Jul 20, 2023

      Q My friend and I are planning to take up polo, but we don't have a clue what tack and equipment we will need to buy. What does a beginner require? Jeff Cooper, Derbyshire Giles says: If you are attending an introductory lesson it will be necessary t

      4 min read

    • Article

      Sons Of The Great Ones

      May 28, 2019

      Sons Of The Great Ones
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hands On

      Mar 23, 2021

      Hands On
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Look Of A Champion

      May 27, 2021

      The Look Of A Champion
      14 min read

    • Article

      The Care Older Horses Need

      Aug 8, 2022

      Brought to you by Age hasn’t slowed Folly very much. Our 31-year-old Quarter Horse still canters circles around his younger pasture-mates. He is in good flesh—neither too fat nor too thin—and his chestnut coat shines like a new copper penny. Friends

      16 min read

    • Article

      Nutrition Report: Amino Acids

      Oct 24, 2020

      Nutrition Report: Amino Acids
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Storybook Ending

      Aug 27, 2021

      A Storybook Ending
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Rise Of The Iberians

      Feb 4, 2021

      The Rise Of The Iberians
      6 min read

    • Article

      Exercise As Therapy

      Nov 20, 2018

      Exercise As Therapy
      5 min read

    • Article

      FIRM Foundations

      Jan 6, 2022

      FIRM Foundations
      5 min read

    • Article

      Soft In The Snaffle

      Aug 20, 2019

      Soft In The Snaffle
      3 min read

    • Article

      Controlled Circles

      Nov 12, 2021

      Controlled Circles
      2 min read

    • Article

      Mary Low

      Jan 14, 2021

      Mary Low
      2 min read

    • Article

      John Watson

      Mar 1, 2023

      A Packard. My father was a motor trader so we had lots of different cars. He’d buy the cars in Glasgow and bring them back to sell in Belfast. I remember the Packards best in the 1950s. Big, lazy, straight eight engines. They were magnificent cars. I

      2 min read

    • Article

      Judy Bradwell

      Oct 22, 2020

      Judy Bradwell
      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jul 2, 2020

      Letters
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Training Thoroughbred Horses

    4/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Training Thoroughbred Horses - Preston M. Burch

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.pp-publishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books—picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1953 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      TRAINING THOROUGHBRED HORSES

      BY

      PRESTON M. BURCH

      with the assistance of ALEX BOWER

      layout and design by THOMAS CAVANAGH

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5

      FOREWORD 6

      THE AUTHOR 9

      SELECTION OF RACING MATERIAL 21

      BREAKING YEARLINGS 34

      TRAINING 2-YEAR-OLDS 54

      3-YEAR-OLDS AND OLDER HORSES 62

      MUD HORSES, GRASS HORSES, AND STEEPLECHASERS 71

      THE CONDITION BOOK 77

      STABLE MANAGEMENT 82

      FEEDING 95

      CARE OF THE FEET 99

      MINOR INJURIES 103

      MISCELLANEOUS AILMENTS 105

      RACING STRATEGY 111

      OWNER-TRAINER RELATIONSHIPS 115

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 119

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      The picture of Sysonby’s skeleton, facing page 126, is used through the courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Other photographs were supplied by Alex Bower, Thomas Cavanagh, Allen F. Brewer Jr., Keeneland Library, Marshall Hawkins, Bert Morgan, Bert Clark Thayer, Skeets Meadors, Jim Raftery, Bob Coglianese, Louis Weintraub, Mike Sirico, Paul Schaefer, Delaware Park, Hialeah Park, Hollywood Park, and Pimlico. All the drawings were made by Allen F. Brewer Jr. Assistance was given by Elmendorf Farm, Herbert Stevens, C. F. White, and Henry White

      FOREWORD

      If some one little thing in this book helps a young trainer in some way I will feel fully repaid for the time and work that I have put in with Mr. Bower in getting these facts together. I have always considered my father a great horseman and a great trainer of horses and I have tried in a small way to emulate him. He is said to have had more friends on the race track than any man who ever trained horses. Racing has been my whole life, and like my father I love my horses. I felt myself greatly honored when approached by The Blood-Horse to write this book.

      I have been surprised and gratified at the reception of the book. Because of the many changes in racing and training methods I have been persuaded to rewrite some of the outdated poi lions of the book.

      With such drastic changes in racing, the horses whose training breezes are set forth in this book would be trained quite differently today to fit into the new conditions.

      During my early training years it was thought that horses needed some kind of a breeze every second day, or if they had two days rest they would at least be allowed to gallop a good quarter-mile in 25 seconds or better the day before the breeze.

      Often I saw Roamer, a gelding, worked at full speed two days before a race. If his race were at a mile on Saturday he would be worked a mile in about 1:39 on Thursday. I saw him go a mile and an eighth in 1:50 one Thursday before racing a mile and an eighth on Saturday. It has often been said that Roamer worked and raced more miles in 1:40 or better than any horse that ever lived. He was a sound, tough horse who lasted a long time while racing against America’s best handicap horses. He was generally weighted near the top in our big races.

      My father had a horse named Decanter who was a bad cribber. To blow him out, his work would be a mile in 1:45 after the last race of the day preceding the one on which he was to race. I cite this to show how necessary it is to give a good blowout to a cribber or windsucker before a race.

      I have also seen horses go a strong quarter of a mile the morning of their race day. They probably were horses with some slight wind trouble or were gluttonous eaters.

      Hollie Hughes trained George Smith to win the Kentucky Derby. Hollie worked him a mile in 1:40 two days before the race. George Smith looked wonderful, had all his speed in the Derby, and ran a great race.

      Sam Hildreth worked *Hourless a mile in 1:38 two days before his match race with *Omar Khayyam at a mile and a quarter at Laurel. The two horses ran head and head the entire distance. *Hourless won by the shortest of margins.

      The first trainer I noticed racing his horses off short works was Enoch Wishard, in my book one of the very best. His horses breezed frequent halves in 50 seconds. They carried plenty of flesh and ran well.

      Ben Jones generally worked his good horses a strong five furlongs two days before a distance race. I think that Ben’s training methods exerted much influence on the American trainers of this era.

      Today horses get short sharp works in contrast to the many slow breezes of earlier years. They must have all their speed for our style of racing.

      No one can tell a man how to train his horse. He must study each one of his horses individually, and train them according to how they take their work.

      A big strong horse is generally a big feeder. Naturally he requires more work than one who is not so strong and who is only a moderate eater. Then of course we find the delicate ones, mostly fillies and geldings who are nervous and poor feeders. They consequently need very little work, and usually lots of time between works. Some trainers give them two to four days of walking exercise, especially if they have had a fast work or a race.

      When a horse is eating well, breezing good, and shows he is feeling good after his works, he can be relied upon to race to the best of his ability.

      On the other hand, if he does not clean up his regular ration of feed, and acts listless, he needs a little rest period to come back to his best form.

      Two-year-olds do best off short, sharp works. I find they have more speed in their races if their sharp work is not too close to their races.

      Three-year-olds and older horses always raced well for me, given a good five furlongs in something like 1:01 on the Wednesday before Saturday’s race.

      These are only a few generalizations on training. There are exceptions to all rules as in everything else.

      —PRESTON M. BURCH

      THE AUTHOR

      Nothing will make a man learn a business faster than to have his own money invested in it. When Preston M. Burch was 18 years old he bought his first Thoroughbred, and he perforce began to train horses to win races. This was in 1902. During the following half-century he was a foremost trainer both in the United States and Europe. He has trained for some of the leading owners in this country, among whom was the late Mrs. Isabel Dodge Sloane (Brookmeade Stable), whose horses led the American Turf in earnings in 1950, with $651,399 gained from 100 firsts, 94 seconds, and 61 thirds.

      The author retired to Brookmeade Farm in 1957 following a heart attack after having trained for Mrs. Sloane since 1943. Mrs. Sloane was fortunate in having Mr. Burch’s son Elliott, assistant to his father, to take over her horses.

      Preston Burch was born in Augusta, Georgia, on August 25, 1884. He was a son of William Preston Burch, who as a boy trained and rode Quarter Horses and served as a courier for General Wade Hampton during the Civil War. William Burch afterward devoted his life to training and met with considerable success at it. Under the tutelage of his father and his uncle, Green B. Morris, one of the great old-time horsemen, Preston Burch learned the sound principles of horsemanship upon which he has built his own success. Both William P. Burch and Preston have been voted into the Hall of Fame at Saratoga.

      In 1902 Preston Burch bought his first horse, a bay gelding named Stuyve, by Stuyvesant—Katie A., by Hyder Ali. The horse won under the Burch colors—blue, orange cuffs, orange cap—a few days after he was bought, and he continued to win under Mr. Burch’s training. One of the young horseman’s first forays with a public stable was into Canada, where the life of a trainer was real and earnest. He did well up there with the horses of F. R. Hitchcock, John E. Madden, Newton Bennington, H. K. Knapp, and others. In 1905, after another period with his father’s stable, he became trainer for the Chelsea Stable owned by Russell Tucker and Ernest La Montagne. On November 7, 1908, he saddled four winners from a program of six races for the Chelsea Stable at Pimlico. They were Taboo, Connaught Ranger, Aster d’Or, and The Wrestler.

      In the fall of 1910, after the Hughes Law had killed racing in New York, Preston Burch went to France as trainer for Harry La Montagne. While there he also trained for George P. Eustis, William Astor Chanler, and John Sanford. He raced in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium, and had success with steeplechasers as well as flat racers. With Harry La Montagne’s Sultan VII he won the Grand Steeplechase International, at Milan, Italy’s most important steeplechase. After the outbreak of World War I he served at the front in France as a volunteer ambulance driver. Later he returned to the States and continued his association with Mr. Sanford. After that he trained George Wingfield’s successful Nevada Stock Farm stable for eight years, then trained for Charles T. Fisher. When Mr. Fisher decided to race exclusively in the Middle West, Mr. Burch

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1