The effects of race track surface condition on the racing time of Orlov trotters

Russian State Agrarian University, Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, Timiryazevskaya St., 49, 127550, Moscow, Russia

^* Corresponding author: marianna1001@yandex.ru

Abstract

Race speed is one of the main indicators by which trotting horses are estimated. In addition to the horse genotype, race speed is also determined by the influence of environmental factors, such as feeding, keeping, training, and testing conditions. These conditions include of race track surface condition, the rider’s qualifications, season of the year, weather conditions. In this paper the influence of race track surface condition on the accuracy of assessing race time is considered. The data of horse trials of Orlov trotters at the Moscow hippodrome were used. The race time of 256 horses at a distance of 1600 m was assessed. Depending on the weather conditions and the track surface, 9 different track conditions were identified. For the analysis we used data on stallions and mares aged 4 years and older without disaggregation by sex, since there were no significant differences between the average race speed of stallions and mares and it was shown that it was the horses of the older age group that were reliably characterized by the highest average race time with minimal races per horse. It was found that the strength of the influence of the variety of race tracks on the variety of assessments of race time is reliable and amounted to 23.5%. When analyzing the group of the fastest horses, this indicator turned out to be higher and amounts to 43.8%. It is also shown that the selection of horses for breeding work is more expedient and accurate to carry out according to the average race time of the horse for a number of races, and not according to its best result, since in this case the stability of performances is not taken into account.