Humans have got faster so why not horses ?

An estimated global audience of 500 million will tune in to see who wins Saturday's Grand National, the world's most famous steeplechase.

Anyone placing an each-way bet will keep an eye on the top five. Racing enthusiasts will note the winning jockey, trainer, owner and starting price. Most of us will not know, or care, about the winning time.

Yet this masks a big question for horse racing. While almost every record in athletics has been broken repeatedly over the past 50 years, horses' race times are stagnating. Why?

Research conducted by Mark Denny, a leading biologist at Stanford University in California, suggests horses have not run the Triple Crown races in the United States much quicker since the late 1940s, a trend largely reflected in the major races in the UK.

Are horses more evolved than humans? Is it the human desire to set new standards? Is it because the human diet has improved considerably compared to horses?

BBC Sport spoke to a variety of experts and came up with eight possible reasons.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/horse-racing/26784479

An excellent article, worth a read

Very good article. A top racehorse Vet, now since retired said to me when I 1st started and asked him same type of question said exactly the same( and that is why I am so positive about the horse's ability being the main reason for being good or bad and not the trainer or jockey)" a horse is an incredible natural athlete. All you have to do is top up his natural fitness , keep him sound and feed him well. He will do the rest"

So why is racing lagging behind? archiach training methods?

hibernia Wrote:

---

> So why is racing lagging behind? archiach training
> methods?


I wonder how many trainers use heart rate monitors in this country? I heard Tarry say Tap Tap had returned a rate close to or better than his best recorded one - I know NHRA rules outlawed electronic devices on a horse but this rule was revised - How many use stop watches and scales etc - I'm not sure maybe they all use them?

Maybe after 300-odd years of breeding we've reached the ceiling, genetically? (Though we still see rare outstanding freaks like Frankel).

Now and again we still hear the age-old story about why football's goals should now be wider and higher. Why? Since 140 years or so ago the average height of a goalkeeper has grown by about 5 inches.