How can you tell if it is a two turn horse?

Several factors give a hint that a horse might be a two-turn horse.

Pedigree. If a horse's sire and dam have prior offspring, you can get a pretty good handle on whether they want to go a distance of ground (two-turn horse) or favor sprinting. In general, horses whose offspring are inclined to improve with distance were themselves horses that won or were competitve against top company in races of 10 furlongs or more. It's also rare for a horse that was not precocious as a two-year-old to sire horses that are precocious and inclined toward sprinting.

Physical build. In general, horses that have a short-coupled, heavily muscled build with very powerful hindquarters, like you'd see on a Quarter Horse, are more likely to be sprinters than horses that have lean, flat muscle and are "scopey": longer through the back and neck, more slender of build, taller and with more daylight showing under them. Horses that want a distance of ground are usually fluid in movement rather than explosive, and tend to have an economy of motion that's difficult to describe. While they may be capable of a burst of speed in the stretch, two-turn horses tend to be long-striding and cover a lot of ground without giving an impression that they're working hard.

Temperament. A two-turn horse has to be able to be rated, to run off the pace, if necessary. While some two-turn horses come from far out of things to make their run in the stretch (think Zenyatta), most tend to run closer to the pace or even on the lead; but the trick is, they run relaxed wherever their rider places them, they don't waste energy fighting the rider and don't get "rank" (i.e., show resistance in the form of head-throwing, tail-swishing, or "climbing") when they're rated, and they don't sulk (come off the bit and quit trying).

Some two-turn horses are one-paced "grinders": they don't pass other horses with an explosive burst of speed in the stretch, they grind out their races by passing tired horses. They don't quit and they're running all the way to the end, but they win more by perseverance than brilliance. Derby winner Giacomo was an example of this.

For all of that, a sprinter, a pure speed horse, can actually steal a race around two turns if tactics fall out right. Bold Forbes, who won the Derby and the Belmont, was probably at his best a 9 furlong horse, but if he got an easy lead in a longer race, he'd set a deceptively slow pace and then sprint down the stretch for a win.

FWIW, this early in their careers, nobody can be sure which of the current crop of three-year-olds are genuine two-turn horses and which are not. You can only watch how they handle the races they run in and try to get a feeling for whether they want more distance, or are all in after 9 furlongs or less. It's also a bit of a crap shoot when it comes to the Derby, because there's a whole lot of luck involved with things like the draw for post positions and how things work out in the first few jumps out of the gate, and how the horses position themselves when they go around the first turn. Little Current, for example, was probably a much better two-turn horse than Derby winner Cannonade; but he found himself shuffled back at the start and running near the back of the field. In the last quarter of a mile, he went from 17th to 5th. He passed 13 horses in the last quarter-mile, and in 99 races out of 100, that would have been a win. But there were 23 horses in the Derby that year and he finished 5th.

What's also true: a horse can be a true two-turn horse, have the stamina and the temperament and everything going for him, and still have the bad fortune to come along in the same year as a better two-turn horse. For example, in 1973 Sham was a superlative two-turn horse. Just one catch: he came along the same year as a better one, a horse named Secretariat. And in 1979, there was an absolutely sterling two-turn horse named Flying Paster who came from out of California. His misfortune was to come along the same year as a better one, Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner and great champion Spectacular Bid.

A trainer can only make his best guess at this stage that a horse wants to cover a distance of ground in his races, and give him a chance to try. But nobody knows for sure until a horse has been tested at the distances beyond 9 furlongs and been tried against the best of his generation.

Any horse with a Dosage Index below 4.00 is considered a two turn horse. 4.00 or higher does better in sprints ( 7 furlongs or less) Only 6 horses with a dosage index of of 4.00 or higher has ever won the the Kentucky Derby. The last 3 being Real Quiet, Charismatic and Mine that Bird. All Triple Crown winners were below 4.00.

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....Billy Ray

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........|..........2 points ..........|||"|""\__

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........!(@)'(@)""""**!(@)(@)****!(@)

Here comes the truck delivering me 2 points