A horse coming back to race after a long layoff is similar to a person getting back in shape for football, baseball or soccer season once they have been off for the winter, spring or summer. For those of you who played high school football, soccer, or baseball, or were even good enough to go on and play in college, you know that those first practices were all muscle building. You are running laps, sprints, and up and down banks. My high school coach: Coach Smith called them bankings. Our banks had roots jutting out so if you weren't paying attention and your foot caught on a root, you would go tumbling on your face and eat dirt. Then coach would give you more bankings because you should have been paying attention. I think I was the record holder for bankings. Coach Smith had a special place in his heart for me! Anyway, it is a lot of muscle toning, muscle stretching, and muscle building before you even touch, pass, or kick the ball or grab a bat. It is all about getting your body and mind ready, building muscle, sharpening your speed and increasing your stamina.
Kid Billy wins his race at Aqueduct on February 16, 2026.
It is the same for bringing a horse back from a long layoff. They have been turned out in a green paddock eating grass, letting their bodies mend naturally. Their brains reboot while getting back to mother nature for a bit, swatting flies and admiring butterflies.
Then it's time to lead them out, put a saddle on them and start jogging. They will be jogging for weeks until they slowly drag themselves into a gallop. When they are ready to gallop, they are telling you they are ready to move on. You gallop them for weeks until they start pulling you down the lane. You know then, when they start pulling you down the lane, it is time to start with two-minute licks (two minute miles), and opening up down the lane. That is when the quarter mile breezes start a week apart, then 3/8's probably four or five times each time a week apart until they can't blow out a candle back at the barn. You move up to half miles the same way: three, four, five weeks until they don't come back huffing and puffing and tired out but still full of energy wanting more. Some of these works will be out of the gate to get the horses to break sharply. Then you move up to five eighths of a mile every week for maybe three or four weeks. After all this, then you start looking for a race.
Winner’s Circle at Aqueduct with Kid Billy on February 16, 2026.
The first race back is important because you want to give the horse not only a nudge but also a positive experience. You want your horse to remember how much fun it is to go back to the racing wars. If they've won races, they know the drill. If they haven't won yet, This will count as a learning experience. Hopefully they show what they are made of, break sharp and be in front at the wire. Sounds easy, but it's a work in progress. Just like you were way back in the day when you were young, spry and a bit of a show off, right? You dog, You!
We do this because it is fun, exciting, and exhilarating. If you've got a horse that does it because they are enjoying it and because they like to go out and compete, You will feel that same exhilaration! After all that, it's just a matter of keeping them sound, pointing them in the right direction and putting them in the right spot. Sounds easy right? LOL!
Bottom line it takes time, months not weeks and, as we all know, time is money in this business as it is with most businesses. If you're counting days or counting your money, or you are always in a rush you are probably in the wrong business. You do this for fun, for the love of racing, for the excitement it brings, and mostly for the love of the horse. Like human athletes all horses are different, they go at their own pace and it's up to the trainer to figure out just what that pace is. If you treat the horse right, they will in turn treat you right. Give your best and they will give you their best. The rest is up to the racing gods!