Dale Baird dead in accident
 

From a local station in WVA:

thats sad rip

This looks like the accident, he was on his way to Illinois with his GF:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...363/1006/LOCAL

Wow.. Just awful. 2 teens killed as well. Very sad.

Winningest trainer in racing history (9,445).

More on accident: http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/ar...24/news/01.txt

Bit on Baird: http://www.hbpa.org/HorsemensJournal...asp?section=7b

Hard to believe but the NTRA does't even have a bio page for Baird.

WOW...incredibly sad. Da Mountain will never be the same.

RIP D.B.:(

Wow.. How surprising and so dang sad... Always bet a few on his horses.. God Speed Dale and my prayers go out to everyone who knew him.

RIP...I remember how Mario Benito tried so hard to beat him out for trainer with most wins year after year but he never quite made it...one year he lost by one when his 4 horses running the last day of the year all came up short...Mario passed on a few years back, may they both return as they left...winners!

kev said it, the mountain will not be the same without Baird. this guy was like a machine, buying horses and winning races year after year. a sad and tragic day for all involved in that wreck.:(

This is just awful for everyone involved. RIP to all involved...

It was very sad, but especially so for the two teens. Driving with an empty trailer in poor weather wasn't too bright.

sad for everyone, especially those two teens who got tangled up in this mess.

Oh how awful. RIP Dale....

My heart goes out to those affected by this tragedy.

That's so sad......
 

My condolences to all the families. RIP

very sad time for all the families involved. my condolences to all.:(

Hall of Fame
 

Hard to believe Baird is not in the Hall Of Fame.

This seems to be a common theme lately. I can see both sides of the coin here. Certainly, he has won a ton of races, the most in history. However, he has done it at a very low level of racing.

Waterford Park, to equate to baseball, probably wasn't even single A level racing, more like rookie ball. Horses that couldn't win at Pen and CT and Tdn and Beu wound up at Mnr. So, again with the baseball, does a guy that hits 350 at single A wind up in Cooperstown?

He not only needs to be in the Hall of Fame, he needs a statue in his likeness at Churchill Downs.

My condolences to all. A very sad event. It's too early to consider anything but this tragedy for the families right now, imo.

So as not to be accused of redboarding, Jack Van Berg and Jerry Hollandorfer should also be in the Hall.

This accident happened 5 minutes from my house, a very sad event.

to win over 9000 races as a trainer is one remarkable feat.

God Bless Dale Baird

R.I.P.

Not that I'm tryin to start anything here, but I see a lot of a bias against lower level tracks, etc (mainly when I talk about my preference for betting crap claimers over Grade 1s, I take some guff for it every time). Whether it be betting, or speaking of the people that are the big timers at these tracks. Give Dale Baird some million-dollar yearlings, and I bet he can run with Pletch. It's about taking what you have, and winning with it. HE DID THAT. Is it better to win a bunch of 5k claiming races, or be like Jamie Sanders where you can barely win anything at any level?

"to win over 9000 races as a trainer is one remarkable feat.

God Bless Dale Baird

R.I.P."

Amen Eaj... 'nuff said.

Low level still doesnt change the fact that he was there every morning and every night and he worked 365 days a year cause thats what they race there.

Exactly.

Now is watching the same as betting to you? As far as betting goes, When mountaineer has 8-10 horse fields almost every race, I love bettin that track. Eventhough the quality of the horse isn't very good, they fields are usually very competitive.

Hmm. Ya gotta point.

Les Onaka should be in the Hall of Fame as well. Might as well throw in Mike McDowell because he was a pretty good jockey at Ellis Park.

And you made a great point too... you obviously declared your stance on Russel Baze. Don't try to tell me that Nor-Cal is loads better than the places you mentioned... So are you gonna tell me Baze doesn't deserve to be in the HOF?

King Leatherbury too...

My point is, these guys take what's given to them, why shouldn't they be rewarded for it? So they got a bunch of wins with not very good horses. They still won at their level. If Baird never made that Asmussen-like rise from the crap tracks to stardom, he shouldn't deserve to be in the HOF?

As I said in the first reply to my thread... I'm not tryin to start an argument over a dude's death.
R.I.P.

Mountaineer Park is a shithole compared to NorCal and Maryland when Leatherbury was at his prime.

But really I say put him in the Hall of Fame. That place is a joke anyways. It's arguably the worst Hall of Fame for any sport on the planet because people in racing don't know how to define greatness.

And yet is paradise compared to the days when Baird racked up a large number of his wins at the old Mountaineer, Waterford Park.

Baird also owned all -- or nearly all -- of the winners he trained. So, he's not just the leading all tme trainer for number of wins but it's very likely he is also leading owner for all-time wins (maybe one of the industry-types here have access to a list of historical # of wins by owner).

He is in the HBPA Hall of Fame.

We certainly have different perspectives on what greatness is. Not everyone can have the kind of horses that Pletch and Frankel and the big tymers get... So Baird should be penalized because Godolphin isn't sending him a million-dollar baby that could get to the Derby ever? So you're saying success in Grade 1s and total wins at Belmont is the only thing that is HOF worthy? What do you think about Russell Baze? He's not as good as Pincay IMO, because Pincay did it on a bigger stage, but still Baze is HOF worthy.

Yes!! You got it!! Baird should be penalized because Godolphin isn't sending him $4000 claimers!!

Whoo hoo!!!!

*head explodes*

We agree to disagree... Have fun bettin your 6-horse field grade 1s. That 5/2 shot you'll hit is really nice value...

R.I.P. Dale Baird.

Good for you. Maybe one day you can move into a house that doesn't have power lines over it.