The degeneration of the sport over the last 15 years

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by Revidere

I get it. The trainer everyone was crucifying in the 90's for running his horses into the ground is now the example to emulate.

Hmmmm.

That's a fair point. 38 starts in 29 months is a bit extreme, and Lukas is not exactly the ideal trainer in my book.

However, I thinking looking at Serena's Song's performances demonstrate that at least some G1-caliber horses can handle an aggressive campaign, and perhaps not every quality runner needs to run less than 5-8 times a year.

[Travis Stone]

Serena's Song raced a lot, shipped a lot, tried a lot and won a lot. If only a few more horsemen were willing to do the things Lukas did.

[Thunder Gulch]

This is the leader in the clubhouse for "Thread of the Year". A lot of great points being made all over.

I believe the drugs, the thoro-patterns, and the egotistical owners all have a prominent part in turning a racing season into a carefully orchestrated attempt at picking soft spots for what should be the best horses in training. This isn't the 40's we're comparing here, we are talking about 15 years ago.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

Serena's Song raced a lot, shipped a lot, tried a lot and won a lot. If only a few more horsemen were willing to do the things Lukas did.

It was a lot of fun when he had a great horse who could stand up to his training.

[Travis Stone]

Not that I'm saying Lukas was the greatest trainer ever, but exactly how many horses did he break down? How many did he "break down" on a national stage, in the spotlight? Is it more than say, other big name trainers in the game today?

[letswastemoney]

When I was a kid, I remember being a huge fan of the Lukas trained Criminal Type. I wish he wouldn't have gotten injured in the middle of the year. Heck if SS, Easy Goer, and Criminal Type never got injured, it would have been a great BC Classic.