We've all tried calculating dog years into human years – mostly inaccurately – but how does this translation apply to harness racing.
In cold, heard term, you can’t; but let’s try regardless.
A steady rule of thumb is that standardbreds starts their racing careers at two, which roughly represents 14 human years, and that we add three human years for every standardbred year going forward.
If we apply this system in its rawest form, three-year-olds are much like 17-year-old athletes, four-year-old’s 20 and on we go from there.
Traditionally, particularly through harness racing’s halcyon days, standardbred athletes matured later than most.
Much like in Aussie Rules, competitors regularly reached their peak through ages six to seven, which loosely translated the late 20’s for a midfielder or key forward.
Oh, how times have changed.
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