Of course he learned from his Dad Cardus. But the best horse his dad trained was Kings Swan. he didn't have a barn full of grade one stakes horses. He had a lotta claimers.
Its a different story training top stakes horses. The techniques ARE different in training a good horse and a claimer. Not the fundamentals, like condition and feed and shoeing, etc. But training good horses is really harder than claimers, claimers you just have to keep happy, you don't have to drill them into condition.
Top horse require a delicate balance of getting and keeping fit without sending them over the top.
I don't think acknowledging a break and good fortune and the opportunity to learn something from one of the best is something to be ashamed of.