Work patterns are one of my favorite angles. In between races a trainer will “work” or exercise their horses. Works can have a any number of goals from simply keep the runner fit to addressing a specific issue or preparing to try something new.

The Data Points
If you’re not already familiar with works, here’s what you’ll see on a past performance:

Track:
Where the work happened, here’s a handy list of track abbreviations, which does not include training tracks such as the example above, the Palm Meadows training track. Palm Meadows is known for it’s deep and tiring track. This means that a horse training at Palm Meadows could have a bit of a fitness edge. If the track is a turf or synthetic surface, you’ll see an indication right after the track abbreviation.

Distance:
Works can vary in distance and are typically from three furlongs to seven furlongs with four or five furlongs being the most common. You’ll occasionally see a shorter work for a 2-year-old or a longer work, such as a mile. Seven furlong and mile works are somewhat rare.

Surface Condition:
All the standard surface conditions apply, this is sometimes good to note depending on the condition of the surface on race day.

Time:
Without knowing the intention of the work it’s sometimes hard to make a judgment about how to interpret the time. For example, sometimes a blazing fast work could be a detriment if the horse peaked in the work and not on race day, or a work that seems slow might be designed to keep the horse in it’s routine and save their best effort for race day.

Comment:
You’ll see one of two comments for a work, B or H. B is for “breezing” or “breezed” which means that the horse was not under any strong urging and H is for “handy” or “handily” meaning the horse was asked or handled. When you compare horses trained in California to horses trained elsewhere you’ll notice that the majority of works in California are noted as handled. This is apparently due to clockers in California being stricter in their interpretation of “being asked” as Dan Illman of the Daily Racing Form explains in this blog.

There are a couple of other designations you could see after the B or H: “g” which indicates that the work started from the gate and “d” which indicates the work was around “dogs” or temporary cones placed on the track. This ensures that the runner goes wide around the track and not on the rail and is more typically used in turf training. Times are generally slower for works with “dogs up” as you’ll see it referred to.

Ranking:
This notes where the horse ranked among all the horses training at the same distance over the track. 2/47 means the horse had the second fastest work of the 47 horses who trained at the same distance. A bullet, or the fastest work at the distance, is additionally noted by the dot at the beginning of the work.

Viewing Them in Context
This information only tells you part of the story. You certainly can derive useful information from the recorded works, particularly when directly compared to the prior races. How were they working before each race? Do any patterns emerge with distance, for example if the horse was stretching out to a longer distance in their last race did the trainer give them any endurance works? Do they tend to fire a bullet prior to a good or bad effort? Trend spotting is the handicappers friend.

Here’s an example: 2010 Derby hopeful Endorsement:

I’ve underlined the works that were prior to his most recent races. If you look at the work pattern before his Feb 20 race where he broke his maiden, you’ll see that both works were nothing special. But the work right after that race was a few seconds faster followed up two longer works with marked improvement. Whether he just came to life on his own after his maiden win or his trainer designed the works to push him harder, it wasn’t hard to see that this was a colt on the improve. That doesn’t always translate into a win or even a good performance! Like everything else it’s only one piece of the puzzle, but in combination with other considerations it can help determine who’s ready to step-up or or not.

A Little Extra Help
It’s not always easy to figure out what’s going on with a horse based on their works. Some trainers, such as Todd Pletcher, Steve Asmussen, Nick Zito and Bill Mott, tend to give all of their horses the same work every time. This makes it difficult for a handicapper to determine if there’s any improvement or regression. Fortunately there are a few times of year when one can avail themselves to extra-special information, the kind of information that unlocks a part of the puzzle that raw data alone could not. What is this extra-special puzzle unlocking information? It’s clocker’s reports!

Clockers are the folks who officially time the workouts, and as the first-hand witness of the work, are able to tell a whole lot more than what you’re going to be able to derive from the above screen shots. For example, did the horse have a work mate, (also referred to as working in company), did the horse have to be asked or did they work willingly? How was the gallop out? What were the splits?

If you’re an early bird who lives by a track, you can find these answers out yourself by going to the track to watch morning works, but for us working stiffs (who have a hard time making to the office by 9!), we have to rely on others. Here’s a little behind the scenes look at clockers from our friends at TVG.

During the Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup there is plenty of free information to be had. One of my favorites is at DRF, their official clocker, Mike Welsch, does a great job of breaking down what he sees. For the 2009 Derby he consistently pointed out how Rachel Alexandra was the most impressive worker in the morning and she won the Oaks by twenty lengths (replay) and the Preakness two weeks later (replay). He also noted that he thought second place Derby finisher Pioneerof the Nile would transfer his form from synthetics to dirt. In 2010 his Derby pick was winner Super Saver and he also pointed out how well third place finisher Paddy o’Prado was working (replay). And finally, he’s tipped off the winner the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner two years in a row in 2009 Tapitsfly at 10-1 (replay) and 2010 More Than Real at 13-1 (replay).

Look for the Churchill Downs communications department to be been making good use of Twitter to report on mornings as 2011 Breeders’ Cup contenders arrive at Churchill Downs. This is a morning must-read leading up to the event. At Raceday 360 you also can keep track of clocker’s reports and videos.

Elsewhere Keeneland provides free daily clocker reports on their site during their meetings. Check your local or favorite track sites to see if they provide a clocker’s reports, and if they don’t it might not hurt to ask!

Keep In Mind
Clocker’s reports generally don’t tell you the intention of the trainer, so a slowish work that may seem uninspiring could be part of a trainer’s bigger plan. Lucky for us there are a couple of times of year when there’s an exhaustive amount of information about workouts, both in terms of the appearance and intention… enjoy it!

Twitter Accounts that Post Workout Info
@derbymedia – updates from Churchill Downs media team
@dejulio – personal account of professional clocker
@grade1racing – info on workouts and a lot of other good information
@morningworks – dedicated to workout information

Keep up with workout information at Raceday 360 >