I Never Gave Up worked this morning at Canterbury.  She went 4 furlongs in :51.67.  The work was the 21st fastest from the 23 horses that worked on the day.

On the surface you can look at this work, shrug your shoulders and say “well, that wasn’t very good” but unless you know what the trainer’s intentions were for the work and what he wanted to get out of it.

In this case, Nevada wanted to get her to run with some energy over the racetrack without pushing too hard.  The time wasn’t important, the energy level was and assess the progression of her fitness level over the last few weeks.  In that respect, mission was accomplished.  She came back just fine and does appear to be getting fitter than she was at Oaklawn.

Another example are a pair of horses that work 4 furlongs.  Both go in :48 and you would, just by looking at you past performances you’d view them as equal.  However if one horse comes back bouncing around and acting like he never ran while the other can barely catch his breath – they are most certainly not equal.  Intent is important with works as is how the horse worked as opposed to just how fast.

You can get notifications for I Never Give Up, Mr. Ark and any other horse you’d like to follow through several sources.

An app for both Android and iOS called Horse Races Now allows you to track entries of your favorite horses, trainers and jockeys in an easy to use interface.  On tracks that authorize video for the app, you can even watch the races live.

The Daily Racing Form and Equibase both have virtual stables where you can get email notifications of trainers and horses including workouts, entries and results.

All three are relatively easy to use and you can check them all out to determine which works for you.