Taking a racehorse’s weight is not a new phenomenon but it isn’t something that is spoken about in racing media circles that often. Weighing horses can tell the owner a lot about the condition of their horse, though. If you can find the ‘winning’ weight for your horse, it can give you a target to work towards each year with regards to the horse’s fitness levels.
Weight as a guide to performance
For example, when a horse is going to the races the owner and trainer can take the weight of their horse into consideration when they can are evaluating potential performance.
A horses weight enables owners and trainers to gather their own opinions from the data presented to them. Owners love sport and as we are comfortable with data in other sports why shouldn’t we become more comfortable with data in horse racing.
Punters in Hong Kong know horses weights
Let’s take Hong Kong as an example. As a punter in Hong Kong, not even an owner, you can gain access to a horses height and weight as well as its veterinary record and trackwork sessions at the click of the button. All of the information that someone needs when examining a race in Hong Kong is right in front of them. This is not the case in Ireland and the UK and it’s rare for trainers to even inform owners of their horse’s weight, for example, unless the owners asked.
Before and after racing
The horses weight before and after a race can also tell the owner a lot about how much the horse took out of himself during the race. In general, the more weight a horse loses, the tougher the race was on the horse. It’s also important though to see how much weight a horse loses after a winning run.
Horses grow a lot
Height is another topic less spoken about in horse racing. A horses height is measured in hands with most racehorses standing between 15 and 17 hands. Horses grow considerably as a foal and a yearling so it’s important that they are given time to grow into themselves before they are put into training. The bigger the horse, the later it will mature. Taller horses will also have more problems with their bones as a result of their heavier body mass.
The weight and height of a horse can tell any racehorse owner plenty about the type of racehorse that they have so it’s important that they find out this information from their trainer.
