Patience is a Virtue

Most of us know from our own experiences growing up that kids mature physically and emotionally at different rates. I was one of the tallest kids in my fifth grade class and in the middle of the pack by the time I graduated. My middle son, who today stands six foot, three inches, displayed none of that height until he was about fifteen years old. I think he grew about five inches between his sophomore and junior years in high school and then continued to grow in college. As a result, his early years on the basketball team were spent on the bench even though he ended up playing basketball in college.

In fact, a gentleman I know who once coached Duke University basketball told me a story about two recruits. They both were the same height but Duke chose the one with the taller parents, figuring the kid would continue to grow. The joke was on them when the one that got away ended up being taller.

All of which just illustrates how we love to pigeon hole our prodigy at an early age based on their appearance. We push tall kids to shoot hoops when they are ten and let the shorter ones play sports a little closer to the ground. And of course we all know kids who were tall and great at basketball at age thirteen only to be surpassed by their peers by the time they are all seventeen.

It is no different with racehorses. According to a wonderful interview in Bloodhorse (July 26 issue) with a panel of experts in the industry, there is a bias against later maturing horses. Everyone wants a January foal whose natural age will more or less correspond with the industry tradition of "aging" thoroughbreds on January 1 and therefore be an "older" three year old. According to Rob Keck, Lexington pedigree analyst, "Commercial breeders are now breeding to a stallion that was a quick maturing, fast, grade I-winning 2-year old. Soundness is no longer a virtue."

Nor is longevity on the racetrack. We don't give our horses time to mature and we don't give them time to grow into their potential. Because it is so expensive to maintain these high maintenance athletes, few can afford to let them grow up according to their inner calendars, not the ones that point them to the starting gate to start earning their keep at age 2.

Maybe it's because I am the mother of a late bloomer or maybe because I have seen too many kids discouraged by factors out of their control or maybe its just because I think everyone needs time to grow into their own skin, I'm beginning to think that we shouldn't let 2 year olds race until very late in that second year if at all.

It is expensive to be patient, in more ways than one, and there are no guarantees that taking it slow and steady makes a difference. But it all depends on your objective. Sometimes the best things do come to those who wait.....