My Best Shot has been supplemented for the Betway Summer Cup and Richard Fourie has been booked, but this Fire Away gelding might feel the effects of altitude at Turffontein more than the other raiders (Pauline Herman Photography)
My Best Shot is one of the supplementary entries for the Betway Summer Cup together with Shoot The Rapids, Anfield’s Rocket and Mastership and he joins See It Again, Royal Victory, King Pelles, Shoot The Rapids, Madison Valley and On My Honour as potential raiders for the big race.
Richard Fourie has already been booked for the Alan Greeff-trained My Best Shot.
The question of altitude will no doubt surface when the raiders are discussed, but in fact it is going to be My Best Shot who is going to have the hardest time of it according to anecdotal evidence.
My Best Shot will raid from Fairview Training Centre, whereas all of the other raiders will raid from Summerveld.
That is is significant because in fact Summerveld is already at a third of the altitude of Johannesburg, whereas a horse raiding from Fairview will take in a full altitude increase from sea level to the 1753m of Johannesburg.
A study of the effects of altitude on racehorses has never been done for the reason that South Africa is the only major racing country in the world where it is considered an issue.
However, South African trainers have their own theories learnt through trial and error over decades of practice.
Athletic performance in thoroughbreds, as in humans, is interlinked with oxygen supply.
Haemoglobin, an iron-containing protein within the red blood cell, carries oxygen to the rest of the body and the more haemoglobin present the more that can be carried.
However, when the number of red blood cells is too large there is a traffic jam effect and blood flow is restricted.
This is termed haemo-concentrating and is chiefly associated with intact males.
Gelding can help solve haemo-concentration and apparently long, slow work is another relieving influence.
Additives can provide the raw material to create haemoglobin, but the only thing that causes haemoglobin to rise is exercise.
The aim of training is to stress the system, so that bone marrow makes more haemoglobin for the workload.
A gradual increase in workload is therefore best.
Scientific studies done on the impact of altitude on human athletes is unlikely to be of much use in thoroughbreds as they have different makeups to humans.
Firstly, over realistic distances, thoroughbreds are physiologically more capable of adapting to high altitude than human athletes, because a horse’s spleen holds approximately one third of its total red blood cells and these are hold in reserve until mobilised through exercise, stress and excitement.
However, the measurement of haemoglobin and red blood cell content in horses can’t always be exact because even the anticipation of the needle can cause excitement and the consequent release of the splenic blood.
Furthermore, there is a debate in literature as to which component of splenic blood is more important in the development of VO2 max in racehorses.
VO2 max is the maximum capacity of an athlete’s body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise.
Some evidence suggests that the overall increase in circulating blood volume is more important.
However, other evidence suggests that the increase in circulating red cells and Heamatocrit (the volume percentage of red blood cells in blood), independent of volume, are more important.
Furthermore, it has been discovered that horses have two types of red blood cells, one being rigid and the other balloon-like.
Horses with more of the balloon-like cells will find it easier to move blood into the muscles and the lungs.
On average horses have 40% rigid and 60% fluid cells, but a horse with only 5% rigid cells would have a tremendous advantage, all else being equal, and this may be an area that explains why some horses are superior to their fellows.
South African trainers generally believe that horses have to be worked harder at altitude.
In order to get a horse fitter it has to reach a stage where it is in oxygen debt.
Incrementally, a horse will be worked to reach this stage until it is fit enough to race, and at altitude horses need to be fitter to race because the oxygen content of the air is less.
It stands to reason that a horse trained at high altitude that will start going into oxygen debt at the 400m mark in a Highveld race might still be debt free by the 200m mark when raiding at sea level.
However, Corné Spies, who is probably the most travelled trainer in South Africa, has been quoted as saying, “If the horses stay at the coast after their runs they tend to go flat. It would take about six weeks or two months for them to aclimatise and they would then begin to thrive. But taking them in and out is not a problem, so I ship them up and down to keep the positive effect of high altitude training.”
It is also generally agreed that horses raiding the Highveld from the coast would struggle at distances beyond a mile.
Horses raiding out of Summerveld have done it, but Geoff Woodruff, a five-times National Champion trainer, who has plenty of experience of training on both the coast and at altitude, pointed out that Summerveld is already a third of the altitude of the Highveld.
It is also generally agreed that coastal horses campaigning on the Highveld hit a flat spot at roundabout the 19 day mark that can last for a week or so, although Woodruff believes it takes three to six months for a horse to aclimatise to altitude, unless it’s a sprint-miler.
There are many extenuating factors to consider on the subject of thoroughbreds and altitude, such as the temperament of the horse and how well it travels.
However, there are those who would say, “If a horse is good enough, it would win on the moon.”
