Pletcher gets a maiden
 

Ender Knievel leaves the Rusty Arnold barn after a 91 Beyer 2nd place finish in a 2yo MSW race in late December. Transfers to the Pletcher barn and goes Sunday.

On top of getting an extremely high quantity of the choice homebreds, yearlings, and two-year-old in traning buys...he's also cornering the market on hot 4th time starting maidens now.

Ender will help fill the stalls left by Ben Leon's horses.

Hopefully he gets a start out of one of them this year. Hate to see a guy spend over $6.2 million for four horses and go more than two years without any of them making a race.

Supposedly the rumor around Ocala was that the big purchase was crippled after two works by the chosen one.....

Give him to Scooter Davis.

He took Deadly Dealer out of non-winners in a year 5K claiming race, where DD ran 8th with like a 20 Beyer, and Scooter got him running high 90's every time and winning stakes again.

At least now their livers are safe.

Lukas was criticized in his heyday for ruining a lot of horses, but at least most of his better horses had actual campaigns and he was a force to be reckoned with on racing's biggest days.

Can't speak for pre-Mid 90's ... but from Mid-90's on Lukas was pretty brutal and way, way, more overbet and underachieving than Pletcher.

He did a real number on a bunch of owners - Padua especially.

But like you said, he did campaign his horses hard and wasn't afraid to ship anywhere at anytime. Good from a fan standpoint.

Pletcher certainly isn't a $1.20 ROI year in and year out -- but it's kind of lame how he's become like his own brand or something. He's always been just a winter wizard -- who often gets hot in spots a few weeks before big sales...but is otherwise someone to avoid.

Terrible from a racing fan standpoint with his five and six race campaigns and horses still often falling apart late in the season.

Owners get lured into his brand just like they did with Lukas. There are some other trainers who I think would be at least as successful with his same stock and ownership support. They just don't have the brand that sucks in owners.

Branding suckers a lot of people into thinking a product is a lot better than it is. See: Kendall-Jackson wines, Grey Goose vodka, and Ruth's Chris steaks.

Lukas hit a major dry spell in 1990 after his main client, Gene Klein, dispersed his holdings. That is a good period to compare to Pletcher's current reign, since both trainers had owners who weren't afraid to open their checkbooks at public auction.

Between 1980 and 1989, Lukas won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness (twice), and Kentucky Oaks (four times). Lukas had a reputation for getting the most out of his 2yos, and during that span he won the Spinaway four times, the Matron five times, the Frizette three times, the Oak Leaf six times, the Norfolk three times, the Del Mar Futurity three times, and the Del Mar Debutante six times, In the first seven Breeders Cups, he won the Distaff three times, the Juvenile three times, the Juvenile Fillies twice (was 1-2-3 in 1988), the Sprint, and the Mile. Not bad.

Lukas was pretty good in the mid 90's also. He won 6 straight triple crown races from 94-96 with 4 different horses. Tabasco Cat 1994 Preakness and Belmont. Thunder Gulch 1995 Derby and Belmont. Timber Country 1995 Preakness and Grindstone 1996 Derby.

Not to mention he was winning a lot of 2 year old stakes on both coasts during that time and his good horses ran frequently and they won a lot.

On a related note, Repole-Pletcher pluck one from Thursday's $12.5k MCLM at GP:
http://www1.drf.com/drfPDFChartRaces...=20120202&RN=3

Yes -- but he also owned the yearling sales and got the best homebreds... and tried to point almost everything to the triple crown.

His ROI during that time was in the $1.20's and $1.30's.

Claimed it off of a 10-for-274 trainer.

I suppose if you're going to claim a 0-for-16 maiden for $12,500 ... might as well as claim it off of a trainer who is winning at less than 5%.

Right, just like Pletcher now. The only difference is Lukas dominated on racings biggest days. His horses were (for the most part) well prepared for the Triple Crown and Breeders Cup and at this point Pletcher horses have underperformed on the biggest stage.

There is something to be said for that.

Over-rated:

Kendall-Jackson wines----yes!
Ruth's Chris steaks-------yes!
Grey Goose vodka-------oh NO!:{>:

That was a very underrated horse.

His dam was awesome too. For those not familiar with Fall Aspen, check her out on PQ.