Victory for Interval Training and Touch

[Roberta Jo Lieberman <fineprint@erols.com>]

For those of you who follow Thoroughbred racing, you may or may not know
that the most remarkable training feat of Breeder's Cup day wasn't
Awesome Again's stunning upset in the Classic, but British trainer
Michael Dickinson's preparation of Da Hoss to win the Mile on turf after
a two-year layoff. Da Hoss was thought to have no chance because of the
long layoff, due to the horse's assorted physical problems. In bringing
the horse back to top form, Michael interval trained the horse on hills
(on a special surface he developed combining sand, rubbers and other
materials) and reportedly had his groom "rub and massage" the horse up
to six hours a day.
According to an article by Andrew Beyer in the Washington Post several
days before the race, Dickinson said about his uphill track: "When the
horses canter daily their heart rate gets up to 200 or 210. If I worked
them at 200 to 210 on a dirt track, they'd break down in little time."
The trainer is now being hailed as a genius. All for doing what people
like Tom Ivers and Linda Tellington-Jones have been saying for years and
years -- and what endurance folk intuitively understand and practice
every day.
Perhaps the hidebound Thoroughbred industry will finally take notice
that there is indeed a better way. Bravo to our heros for their
perseverance in the face of ridicule and scorn. And congrats to those
who held a two-dollar ticket on Da Hoss -- they were rewarded with a
payoff of $25.10.
Bobbie Lieberman in Maryland