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Originally Posted by eurobounce
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.
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I said it is rare that Pletcher runs horses over their head. I didn't say it has never happened. But it is extremely rare.
Percentages don't matter? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Percentages are the most important thing. If a guy is a brand new trainer and he only has 10 horses and one of them breaks down, we don't have enough of a sample to make any clear conclusions. But when you have guys who have trained thousands of horses over 20 years, percenatges are extremely important. There is no way to twist the numbers. If one guy has 50 breakdowns per thousand horses and another guy only has 12 breakdowns per thousand horses, you would know that there is a problem with the guy who has 50 breakdowns per thousand.
I never said Lukas did everything wrong. He obviously did a lot of things right back in the 1980s. You have to do a lot of things right to be a successful trainer. You have to have good help, you have to be well organized, you have to have good vets, you have to know how to use your vets, you have to be able to attract owners, you have to be able to raise money, you have to be a good salesman and self-promoter, you need good people skills, etc. There are a ton of different factors. I think Lukas possessed practically all the qualities that a trainer needs to be successful. His biggest weakness was his actual training ability. But if you are a smart guy and you have great assistants and good vets, you can succeed even if you're not a very good trainer, especially if you are years ahead of practically all the other trainers in terms of pharmocology.