Top 5 greatest training achievements in BC history

[MISTERGEE]

echo in here (see above)

[Soaring Softly]

Yep.....sorry about that! Missed the post!

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

Originally Posted by MISTERGEE

2006 turf-Marty Wolfson takes horse who recently ran in claiming and was about to be retired to win the turf, has to be considered

spanked e channel..lol gpk in 5/4/3/2..

[GPK]

Originally Posted by hoovesupsideyourhead

spanked e channel..lol gpk in 5/4/3/2..

[philcski]

Originally Posted by hoovesupsideyourhead

spanked e channel..lol gpk in 5/4/3/2..

lol on the gpk in 5/4/3/2

except it was the mile, not the turf- EC finished 3rd that year in it.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

I think the best of all has been overlooked. Neil Drysdale getting Prized to win the 89 Turf as a 3yo in his first career turf start was pretty darn impressive.

Andre Fabre was 2nd with the 3yo filly Sierra Roberta at 25/1 odds in that race. Andre Fabre was 3rd with 52/1 shot Star Lift.

8/1 shot Prized was bred great for the turf ... and had he not been scared away from the Classic by Easy Goer and Sunday Silence ... Andre Fabre would have ended up with a 25/1 over 52/1 cold exacta in that race.

What Andre Fabre did in the Classic back-to-back with Jolypha and Arcangues is really beyond belief.

3rd with a 3yo filly who might have gone off at 150/1 odds or more if not coupled with a pair of solid older Grade 1 winners. And he takes down the Classic the following year at 133/1 odds. Both horses stayed in America for great trainers like Frankel and Dick Mandella afterwards ... and neither one amounted to much on either surface.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Soaring Softly

One rather major training accomplishment that often gets forgotten is Neil Drysdale's feat of getting Prized to win the Breeders Cup Turf in his first ever start on the grass........and as a three-year-old to boot!

Pretty stunning stuff!

3-year-olds made up 4 of the top 5 spots in that race.

The only older horse that finished in the top 5 that race was the 52/1 of Fabre's that ran 3rd.

By the way ... If Indian Charlie would have bet on Prized .. he would have jumped the fence and went for a swim in the infield or something like that.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

I think William Livingston deserves a mention.

the photographer?

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by cakes44

Just outside the top 5 IMO would be Frankel squeezing a 3rd out of Badge of Silver in the Mile off like a 9 month layoff.

Yeah ... you honestly can't do a true top 5 on something like this because you don't know what's going on with the horse day to day.

A horse like a Badge of Silver or Midnight Lute or Gilded Time or Da Hoss all had extreme talent ... it's hard to judge how great of a training job those all were unless you saw what was going on day to day and really knew what you're seeing.

Jorts...a Gator fan tradition.

[cmorioles]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Andre Fabre was 2nd with the 3yo filly Sierra Roberta at 25/1 odds in that race. Andre Fabre was 3rd with 52/1 shot Star Lift.

8/1 shot Prized was bred great for the turf ... and had he not been scared away from the Classic by Easy Goer and Sunday Silence ... Andre Fabre would have ended up with a 25/1 over 52/1 cold exacta in that race.

What Andre Fabre did in the Classic back-to-back with Jolypha and Arcangues is really beyond belief.

3rd with a 3yo filly who might have gone off at 150/1 odds or more if not coupled with a pair of solid older Grade 1 winners. And he takes down the Classic the following year at 133/1 odds. Both horses stayed in America for great trainers like Frankel and Dick Mandella afterwards ... and neither one amounted to much on either surface.

All of which has absolutely nothing to do with Neil Drysdale. Weak field or not, to win that race first time on turf is pretty freaking impressive, especially considering the horse had been running very well on dirt. Clearly, you don't just throw a horse out in the country's top mile and a half turf race and win it without doing some masterful work in the mornings.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

War Chant was 2nd time turf when he won the Mile for Drysdale as a 3yo.

But again, the horse was regally bred for turf. I'm also pretty sure War Chant was a post time favorite. No doubt both were fine training performances ... but they don't have the "WTF" factor that Fabre had with the first two he ran in the Classic.

I think Prized was a much better turf horse than dirt horse after his BC win as well... but that's more in a time period that's in IC's and Rollo Tomasi's wheelhouse and not mine.

[CSC]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

A horse like a Badge of Silver or Midnight Lute or Gilded Time or Da Hoss all had extreme talent ... it's hard to judge how great of a training job those all were unless you saw what was going on day to day and really knew what you're seeing.

Not all horses with extreme talent win BC races they are supposed to, talent is immaterial to me because let's face it you can't train a Clysdale to win a BC race no matter how many training titles you have won, you have to have talent to win. Getting them to perform at the big dance and timing it to perfection especially with horses that have experienced setbacks or some sort of adversity is good training and at times this can even be called a 'great training feat'.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by CSC

talent is immaterial to me because let's face it you can't train a Clysdale to win a BC race

Dutrow won two on the same day with Silver Train and Saint Liam ... two horses who royally sucked before he got them.

Wolfson won the Mile in blowout fashion with a horse who was out of the money in a claiming race less than a year prior.

Again ... it's kind of a silly thread. There is no way anyone can say with exactatude what the greatest ones are unless they were around all of the past BC winners for months leading into the race and really knew what they're seeing in the morning. I just picked the ones that made me say "holy sh!t!" and "WTF!" ... Midnite Lute winning the way he did didn't surprise me in the least. But I'm sure it was an excellent training job.

[CSC]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Dutrow won two on the same day with Silver Train and Saint Liam ... two horses who royally sucked before he got them.

Wolfson won the Mile in blowout fashion with a horse who was out of the money in a claiming race less than a year prior.

Again ... it's kind of a silly thread. There is no way anyone can say with exactatude what the greatest ones are unless they were around all of the past BC winners for months leading into the race and really knew what they're seeing in the morning. I just picked the ones that made me say "holy sh!t!" and "WTF!" ... Midnite Lute winning didn't surprise me in the least. But I'm sure it was an excellent training job.

Dutrow and Wolfson are in a special category all of their own, yeah I get what you were trying to say.

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

3-year-olds made up 4 of the top 5 spots in that race.

The only older horse that finished in the top 5 that race was the 52/1 of Fabre's that ran 3rd.

By the way ... If Indian Charlie would have bet on Prized .. he would have jumped the fence and went for a swim in the infield or something like that.

I had the trifecta dude.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Wait a minute .... I thought you were the unluckiest bettor of all-time?

You'll have to explain to me how that one wasn't DrugSian type luck.

[Indian Charlie]

Easy enough.

I had my lucky sock with me and was on 'my' Ritalin that day!

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Interestingly ... Dick Mandella took over the training of Arcangues after his BC Classic win. He did no better with him than Frankel would do with Jolypha.

In both cases, the horses were away from the track for 6 months. Maybe they forgot how to run.

--Dunbar