How Many Horses did you say are on the Grounds?

The horse count at Hastings has become quite a debatable issue. The track has recently requested a "recount" of all occupied stalls.

Here is my count. Up and including through May 29th, 535 different horses have run at Hastings. Subtract 22 two year olds that have already run and that leaves you with 513 different horses that have raced from day one of the meet. The number of new horses running each weekend has slowed to a trickle and is approximately 7 each day. I will guess that there are about 70 more new horses on the grounds that have yet to run. That would put us at 583 horses. As far as two year olds I have heard numbers from 150 to 180. Let us split the difference and say there are 165 two year olds. That would put our total horse population at 748. However we are not quite finished. We need to subtract a percentage of horses that have left the grounds due to injury, so let us say 25 have gone. We also have to account for two year olds that have bucked their shins, have coughs and so forth and are back on the farm. That number is about 40 percent conservatively speaking. However it is just a guess. But the larger barns will probably be able to replace the ones that go home with not an equal amount but at about 75% of the original total.

So my final count is as follows.

The total number of horses that have run by May 29^th is 513 excluding two year olds. Approximately 70 horses that are on the grounds have still not run. There are 165 two year olds. However 66 of these have probably gone back to the farm but have been replaced by about 50 horses. And finally conservatively speaking about 25 horses have left due to injury of various sorts. That leaves the count at 707 potential horses available in the horse pool.

Now where could my count be off?

There could be another 20 or so two year olds. And there could be another 30 that still have not run, except in circles in the morning. I do not include ponies. That would put us at 757 total available horses on the grounds. If the new count that is being undertaken by Hastings comes in at 75 to 100 horses higher than my count there is going to be a lot of upset people wanting to know why so many horses are running around and around in the morning. Blame it on the weather you say! Well partly and rightfully so. But some of the barns are managing to run horses and have worked around the terrible weather. How come they are able to do so? We need more horses running in races and we need them now. Our field size is now under 7.20 per race. This is hurting us badly.

However if my count is close to being correct then the Friday nights in June just will not work. However I will save the Friday night racing topic for a future posting.

Michael Robert Bye
(Keeper of Numbers)


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