Stamina/Speed Gene Isolated

jinnyj said:
When I was at Cumanis over 20 years ago, David Marlin from the Animal Health Trust came out and took muscle biopsies from many horses to determine which had fast twitch and which had slow twitch muscles indicating sprinters or stayers. He also stuck on heart rate monitors and watched their stride rate. I was interested when he picked out Khayasi as the top of the horses he tested (he wasn't given any individuals details).
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I suspect the gene is a strong influence on how the muscle fibres are made up. How invasive is a muscle biopsy? Obviously a blood test is far easier to do.
 
SteveM said:
Dosage of course tells you the same thing but also screens out significant influence from that which is not significant and groups horses with rather more precision into five stamina categories. The gene test is more foolproof, but will be less precise about an individual’s distance potential.
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Have you got a link to the paper which shows that Dosage is more precise than the methods presented in the (peer-reviewed) paper linked to above?
 
krizon said:
The vet would fix you in a flash, DO. Just a little snip, and... oh! Oh, you mean your respiratory problems? Well, he could fix that, too. I reckon a tongue-tie to keep your airways open when you're active, with the longer-term prospects tilting towards Hobdaying you. Sorted!
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I even snored last night, which woke me up several times. I very seldom snore, if ever, and only when I've resp probload.
 
Gareth Flynn said:
Have you got a link to the paper which shows that Dosage is more precise than the methods presented in the (peer-reviewed) paper linked to above?
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By more precise I mean that Dosage groups horses into five range categories rather than simply three (Speed, Middle-Distance and Stamina). The gene test ought to be 100% accurate for lumping them into these three groups, but is not as precise in the calibration.

Individuals will continue to be successful outside of their natural group no matter what the gene test indicates.

However, to quench your thirst for research papers, with regard to the reliability of Dosage, there is a research paper: The Dosage Breeding Theory for Horse Racing Predictions by Marshall Gramm (Department of Economics and Business, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, USA) and William T Ziemba (Sauder School of Business, UBC, Vancouver, Canada, Mathematical Institute, Oxford University, and ICMA Centre, University of Reading, UK) (2008), written for the Handbook of Sports and Lottery Markets c 2008 Elsevier B.V., which shows that Roman and I haven’t been wasting our time over the past decade or so.


 
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Dessie - I woke myself up this morning with a terrific SNORT! sound which was terrifying. I don't think I snore, as such, but have been coming to thinking that I've heard a loud noise, and now I think that it's been me!
 
SteveM, do you consider it rather convenient that the poor results for the Preakness Stakes are omitted from the overview while the good results for the other two legs of the Triple Crown are included?

And do you consider it at all questionable that Ziemba is essentially marking his own exam paper by commenting - favourably, as it happens - on his own previous research in much of this piece?
 
You decide. The results tell me nothing I’m not aware of and the research reflects a factual analysis of what has been analysed. I offer this for no other reason than I was asked to.
 
That article is amazingly bad for a broadsheet newspaper. It is essentially an advertisement for a company that Bolger has a share in.

The fact that the people making these claims are the ones most likely to gain financially from them immediately casts doubt on the findings of the research. That said, the article does not provide much (if any) evidence for its incredible findings. It is surely already deeply suspicious.
 
Bar the Bull said:
That article is amazingly bad for a broadsheet newspaper. It is essentially an advertisement for a company that Bolger has a share in.

The fact that the people making these claims are the ones most likely to gain financially from them immediately casts doubt on the findings of the research. That said, the article does not provide much (if any) evidence for its incredible findings. It is surely already deeply suspicious.
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It does look like that doesn’t it… Like I said Bolger no doubt thinks he is on to a money-making scheme with this. It is doubtful that he is. I do not doubt the veracity of what is claimed, but what is claimed is not very much – viz that in genetic terms all thoroughbreds fall into three natural types in connection with a ‘speed gene’. The only thing you would be paying for is knowing which of the three groups an individual was in… but that wouldn’t be telling you much more than you ought to know anyway. You will still find that sub-milers will be able to win at middle-distances and that middle distance horses will stay a trip well enough to win Cup races.
 
SteveM said:
It does look like that doesn’t it… Like I said Bolger no doubt thinks he is on to a money-making scheme with this. It is doubtful that he is. I do not doubt the veracity of what is claimed, but what is claimed is not very much – viz that in genetic terms all thoroughbreds fall into three natural types in connection with a ‘speed gene’. The only thing you would be paying for is knowing which of the three groups an individual was in… but that wouldn’t be telling you much more than you ought to know anyway. You will still find that sub-milers will be able to win at middle-distances and that middle distance horses will stay a trip well enough to win Cup races.
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That about sums it up Steve.
 
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