Horse Racing Works, What Do Workouts Mean and How to Use Them

Horse Racing Works, What Do Workouts Mean and How to Use Them

The subject of horse racing works is a complicated one and this horse racing article about workouts will just scratch the surface, but it should get you headed in the right direction.  Works are extremely important because they are usually the most recent record of the horse’s condition and also they are usually an expert opinion on the horse.

Clockers are professional horse men and women who time the horses when they exercise in the morning on the race track or on a training track.  It is a specialized job that requires a person who can identify a horse and then use a stop watch to accurately time that runner while it races over the track with an exercise rider on board.

Imagine that you are at a race track in the morning and there are hundreds of horses at the race track and maybe a dozen on the track.  Do you think you could tell one horse from another?  Most people see a brown horse, a gray horse, or a black horse.  But clockers have the uncanny ability to actually identify each horse by name, even if they have only seen it once.

When you look at the past performance s of a horse you will see the works at the bottom of that ones lines.  It may say something like, 23 Aug HOL 5f ft 1:00.  That means that on the 23rd of August that horse worked 5 furlongs (5f) over a fast track (ft) at Hollywood Race Track (HOL) and it covered the distance in 1 minute flat (1:00).  That is significant if the horse hasn’t raced in the last 30 days because works are how horses stay in shape between races.  It is also significant because it tells you the horse is in good shape.

As a general rule of thumb, a horse that is in racing condition should be able to cover a furlong (each furlong is an eighth of a mile) in 12 seconds or less.  So a 3 furlong work (3f) of 36 seconds would be a good sign.  Any work of less than 12 seconds for each furlong would be a very good sign particularly if it is for 4 furlongs or more.  An example would be a four furlong work at :46.3.

While works are important for all horses, particularly if they are returning to the races after a layoff of a few months or more, they are very important when assessing the chances of a maiden or young horse.  Maidens are horses who have not won a race, yet, so it is hard to tell just how good they really are.  If you see a maiden who has had a series of works spaced a week or so apart and some of those workouts are five furlongs or more, that is a very good sign.

The last consideration is bullet works and comparing one horse to another.  A bullet, a big black dot, before a horses workout means that it was the fastest one at that track and distance for that day.  Now if only two horses exercised that day, it doesn’t mean much, on the other hand, if many worked out, it is significant.  Some past performances tell you how many horses exercised that day and how that particular runner fared among them.  It will say something like 1/30.  That means that horse’s time was the fastest of all 30 horses who worked out at the track and distance that day and that is a very good indicator of a fast horse.