Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin
Pletcher's owners have high expectations. You don't see him constantly running horses way over their heads.
We all know that the more horses a trainer has, the more horses he will have breakdown. We all know that. The number of absolute breakdown is not relevant. It's the percentages that matter.
With regard to young assistant trainers, you're not going to have much of a chance to make it on your own unless you worked for a big-time trainer. If you work for a no-name trainer, how are you going to get any decent owners? It's only if you work for a big trainer that you will make contacts with big owners. Not only that, but the big trainers get the best assistants. The best young talent is obviously going to want to work for a big trainer. If Scott Blasi ends up going on his own and is a successful trainer, how would you explain his success? I would not explain his success as a result of Asmussen teaching him. The most obvious answer would be a combination of things. First, I would say that he was very talented to begin with and that is why Asmussen hired him. Then I would say that he made a lot of contacts while working for Asmussen.
You say that the reason Lukas doesn't turn out horses is because he is old-school? I wasn't talking about turning a horse just to give the horse a break. I was talking about turning a horse out that is hurt. If a horse has a minor injury that requires 60 days at the farm, most guys will turn the horse out. Lukas will not. He will just keep running the horse. I don't know how you can defend that.
You say that Lukas will now be personally supervising the training of his horses. For years, the joke was always that his horses would do much better when he wasn't around because his assitants were much better trainers than he was.
|
Does a horse named Keyed Entry come to mind as a horse than was put in spots that were over his head. And I am sure I can name more. I just dont feel like doing the research. Every top trainer has horses that run in races above their head.
And percentages DO NOT MATTER. It is the whole number that matters. If you have 10 horses and one breaks down then you are at 10%. If you have 200 horses and 20 breakdown then you are at 10%. You can make numbers say whatever you want. That is why you need to know the number of horses trained compared to the number that broke down. You look at the whole number.
I think assistant trainers learn a great deal from their mentor. That is how it is. U will get no argument from me that Lukas was blessed with talented assistant that may or may not be better trainers than him.
And again, we will see how well Lukas does down at Oaklawn. I don't care either way, but the man has won everything but the Triple Crown. I don't see how you can see he isnt any good.