Always wondered, why can a Harness horse go every 5-7 days vs a Thoroughbred??

[Seamus11]

And even every third day at times??  Honestly have never figured it out??

[Rabbi Of Racing]

trainers work hard

[comeonman]

Breed

[Powerful Patricks Ghost]

It's almost as if they are a different breed of animal or something.

[MR.DALRAE]

The harness horse lands with 2 feet at a time,,,,the tbred only lands on 1 at a time,,,now no more lessons

[horses first]

1 a rolling start for harness. A lot of pressure is put on a thoroughbred standing still at the gate. Thoroughbreds have a more brittle bone structure. Usually taller and heavier more prone to injury. Whether style of gait makes a difference I don't know as a thoroughbred gallops. But all being said with the rash of thoroughbred deaths on the tracks this year. I can see why they don't race every other week. Santa Anita had two more since reopening and 32 this year. NY has had a dozen or more.

[Equus Caballus]

The harness horse lands with 2 feet at a time,,,,the tbred only lands on 1 at a time,,,now no more lessons

Very correct

[pccwsc2]

Trained different
Breed different
Confirmation is different

[Barnet Garnsdale]

 HOW DO STANDARDBREDS RACE WEEKLY?  GREED AND DRUGS MALE IT HAPPEN.   RACE, THEN SHOOT THEM FULL OF DRUGS SO THEY IGNORE PAIN, SO THEY CAN GO AGAIN IN 7 DAYS

[pylon]

 I think its partly because at the vast majority of harness tracks the same conditions are written week after week, where as Tbreds have so many variables that writing the same condition week after week is virtually impossible especially if the track itself goes only 3 or 4 times a week

[The Exporter]

A T-bred's body, takes considerably longer to recover from flat out racing over 3/4 to 1.5 miles than a standardbred with a gait than throttles it's energy. The racing surface also drains their reserves much more.
At cheap tracks, you will see the older claiming geldings get raced 2x a month. So, when all is taken into consideration, it makes sense.   

[Sam R]

They go faster. About 10mph faster

[The Exporter]

That about says it all. Could you imagine a T-bred going 2-3 heats in a day?

[okdfool]

Standardbreds are bred to go all day every day, thats why the Amish use them, they have a larger sturdyer bone mass , T breds are long and thin boned not very stocky more delicate, they break down a lot faster and at younger ages, thats wht most dont race past 5...

[chief yogi]

t breds are brittle. not long ago 25 years or so many raced 2x a month. now after years of racing only to breed the t breds are not durable. the top class ones duck racing each other untill the derby. derby winner loses preakness and its the same thing. minor injury (stone brusie) trainer says horse been good to us. retired. breed. so they end up breeding a fast horse who raced 6 times in its life to same. very different from years ago. citation won triple crown yet raced 3 more times in between the triple crown races. do that today and all the t bred trainers would have you commited. the durability has been bred out.