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Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
Shirreffs won two of the most important of the original Breeders Cup races and was 11-for-26 in Graded Stakes races with a $3.25 ROI.
Baffert managed to win a Grade 1 stake race with 6 different horses and his horses posted a $2.70 ROI with 78 starts in Graded Stakes races.
They both had huge years - their horses greatly exceeded expectations in the big races - and surely dominated the west coast portion of the vote.
If they gave an Eclipse Award for trainer of only synthetic, turf, and hurdle horses... Sheppard wins easy despite his typical 0-for-29 Gulfstream duck.
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I don't have have all the PPs or numbers in front of me, but using ROI to state that a trainer had a good year doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Baffert's three highest-profile horses during the year were Zensational, Pioneer of the Nile and Lookin at Lucky, and none of them paid a big price (maybe with the exception of Zensational in the Triple Bend). It suggests that a few big prices likely skewed the results.
It's like saying that the partnership in which I'm involved had a great year because our ROI from 29 starters (4 wins) was $4.05. We had a horse that won at Belmont and paid $97.00.
But if we're going to use that analysis, what was Sheppard's ROI for his graded stakes starters?