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Originally Posted by eajinabi
I agree Whitingham was a trainer with great talent. Trainers today give thier horses long layoffs and juice thier horses but it does nothing to extend thier careers. How many top horses have you seen run past 10 lifetime starts in thier career nowadays.
Lukas method of training did not involve lightly racing and long extended layoffs. He liked to run horses in races (often races they did not belong in) into form. Spain is a good example of that. So If he is 0 for 25 at CD meet does this attribute to him juicing his horses too much or not at all?
How does trainers like Steve Asmussen, Rudy Rodriguez, Mike Mitchell, Jeff Mullins etc get a pass while Lukas is singled-out like a criminal.
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The original point of this thread was that D Wayne is not a very good trainer. His numbers have been lousy for years. He did great back in the 1980s for a number of reasons but those days are over.
With regards to him being 0 for 25 at Churchill, it's really not that shocking. He doesn't do well any more against tough competition. He does his best at places like Oaklawn Park in the winter when he's running horses he paid $200,000 for against horses that were bought for $20,000.
I don't know what you define as "juicing". Most of the top trainers do make full use of their vets. There are tons of legal drugs that are very expensive that will help most horses. With regard to Lukas' current use of vets, I would guess that his vet bills are still extremely high. His horses have always tended to be really sore so he has always had to rely on his vets.
You asked about a few other trainers. Mike Mitchell is basically a claiming trainer. He doesn't usually get many expensive young horses. He has a reputation of being a claiming trainer that magically moves a lot of horses up overnight but he also breaks down a lot of horses. I always thought he was a real butcher dating back to the 1980s.
The reason I dislike Lukas so much is because he was always such a butcher. As I've mentioned before, at one time he was breaking down so many horses that some insurance companies wouldn't even insure his horses. That's really saying something because horse insurance is a great business. They usually won't turn anyone down.
I don't know if you ever talk to any trainers, but if you do, ask them what they think of Lukas. I've never talked to a single trainer that thinks is a good trainer. I know a ton of trainers and I don't know a single one that respects Lukas as a trainer. They all respect Frankel. They all respect Whittingham. They all respect Pletcher. But none of them respect Lukas.