Agreed it probably helped. Although I disagree with the Belmont - Borel moved way too early (yes I rewatched the race last night) and completely misjudged the stretch at Belmont. I seem to recall that week he was in NY being interviewed on a bunch of talk shows and didn't get a single mount at the track besides Mine That Bird. That seems to be the undoing of a lot of jockeys who don't run at Belmont regularly.peeptoad wrote:For humans I've read bunch of places that it has a widely variable effect, but the avergae length of time the conditioning lasts in humans once they move back to sea level is ~4-12 weeks.Somnambulist wrote:If it wears off pretty quickly I think it might not last 5 weeks. Maybe?Treve wrote:
Yes I think peeptoad mentioned that, but I wonder if that were the case if it would have lasted until Belmont. I know for humans who train and camp at higher altitudes the effect usually wears off pretty quick. It comes up a lot when discussing him, and I think it's mentioned with regards to others every now and then but off the top of my head I can't remember. There was a case here several years back about a woman who was contesting a dq based on increased hemoglobin, she had been sleeping and training at high altitude to naturally increase it, but she was accused of doping even if they couldn't find any substances in her samples. Can't remember how that ended.
This thread has made me realize again how insane Rachel's Preakness was.
Mine that Bird may have won for another reason or combination of reasons; imho the altitude he had been living and training in was one of them. He ran well enough in the Preakness, tailed off in the Belmont but still a good effort, and his subsequent race in the WV Derby was pretty subpar, given the company. Has the appearance of a horse tailing off.... for whatever reason.
WV Derby was subpar, but it was also after he was moved to Lukas so, probably a combination of factors.
Thank you so much for posting this, I can't wait to dive into it!