failure is subjective
 

In one of Dr. Wayne Dyers great books he describes a situation in Thomas Edison's search to build the first light bulb. Someone talked to him and discovered he had used over 700 different combinations for his filament and had not found one that would work for more than a few minutes. Asked about how he handled such "failure," he was reported to respond: "I did not fail but found over 700 things that did not work."

Dyer then goes on to explain that a result is a result and it is only SOMEONE ELSE'S definition of that situation (it does not have to be yours) that dictates it was a failure.

I hear people all the time discarding pace lines with archaic rules of what defines a "good" (usually only beaten AT THE WIRE a set number of lengths) over a "bad" race. Poppycock, like Edison's filament discoveries EACH outing is a lesson to be considered in figuring out how that horse might run today.

Often major improvements (particularly step-wise improving early speed) is hidden in what others chose to call race "failures," when it reality they were just efforts. Dismissing those efforts because of some arbitrary definition of them being "bad" or "failures" is to dismiss information that could have a strong bearing in understanding the progress of a horse.

Bravo. Very important idea!

Ted