trainer Scott Lake wins race #5,000

[The_Knight_Sky]

Lake becomes sixth trainer in history to win 5,000 races
http://www.drf.com/news/lake-becomes-sixth-trainer-history-win-5000-races

Scott Lake became just the sixth trainer in North American racing history to register 5,000 victories when Communicator captured the first race Wednesday at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

“It’s a tremendous thing,” Lake said by phone from Laurel. “I couldn’t be more proud of the horses I’ve trained, my staff, my clients, everybody. This is really a special moment.”

The late Dale Baird is the all-time winningest trainer in North America with 9,445 victories, followed by Jack Van Berg, King Leatherbury, Jerry Hollendorfer, and Steve Asmussen, all of whom are still active.

[Stillriledup]

Woohoo! :jump:

[PaceAdvantage]

What amazed me most about Scott Lake winning #5,000 was the graphic they put up on TVG...Jack Van Berg is #2 on the list of wins all-time, behind Dale Baird. Interesting in that Jack Van Berg was the Dale Baird of now defunct Ak-Sar-Ben (or was Dale Baird the Jack Van Berg of Mountaineer)? You be the judge... ;)

Anyway, I was amazed because poor Jack basically fell off the face of the Earth once the 80s were over...and yet he is still #2....

[Stillriledup]

What amazed me most about Scott Lake winning #5,000 was the graphic they put up on TVG...Jack Van Berg is #2 on the list of wins all-time, behind Dale Baird. Interesting in that Jack Van Berg was the Dale Baird of now defunct Ak-Sar-Ben (or was Dale Baird the Jack Van Berg of Mountaineer)? You be the judge... ;)

Anyway, I was amazed because poor Jack basically fell off the face of the Earth once the 80s were over...and yet he is still #2....


I thought the exact same thing. When i saw that i was like, "There's no way". Jack's probably won less than 100 races in the last 20 years.

He'd have a lot more winners if he was a cheater.

[tubesockshakur]

What amazed me most about Scott Lake winning #5,000 was the graphic they put up on TVG...Jack Van Berg is #2 on the list of wins all-time, behind Dale Baird. Interesting in that Jack Van Berg was the Dale Baird of now defunct Ak-Sar-Ben (or was Dale Baird the Jack Van Berg of Mountaineer)? You be the judge... ;)

Anyway, I was amazed because poor Jack basically fell off the face of the Earth once the 80s were over...and yet he is still #2...........wasnt jack the 1st to have horses all around the country? i used to love to bet his horses back in the day......

[macguy]

What amazed me most about Scott Lake winning #5,000 was the graphic they put up on TVG...Jack Van Berg is #2 on the list of wins all-time, behind Dale Baird. Interesting in that Jack Van Berg was the Dale Baird of now defunct Ak-Sar-Ben (or was Dale Baird the Jack Van Berg of Mountaineer)? You be the judge... ;)

Anyway, I was amazed because poor Jack basically fell off the face of the Earth once the 80s were over...and yet he is still #2....


I don't know about "fell off the face of the earth." Though he certainly doesn't start as many horses. He's still quite active in Southern California, averaging around 200 starts/year.

One thing about Dale holding the record, many of those horses were personally owned and trained by him. To boot, he earned that record nearly exclusively with cheap claimers.

Not too cheapen Steve Asmussen's achievements, but he essentially is a paper trainer in many cases. He has strings of horses all over the country (and Canada), running under many different assistants, at many different tracks. It's a lot easier to break records when you have over 1000 starts a year, but are they really his starts or his assistants?

[Stillriledup]

I don't know about "fell off the face of the earth." Though he certainly doesn't start as many horses. He's still quite active in Southern California, averaging around 200 starts/year.

One thing about Dale holding the record, many of those horses were personally owned and trained by him. To boot, he earned that record nearly exclusively with cheap claimers.

Not too cheapen Steve Asmussen's achievements, but he essentially is a paper trainer in many cases. He has strings of horses all over the country (and Canada), running under many different assistants, at many different tracks. It's a lot easier to break records when you have over 1000 starts a year, but are they really his starts or his assistants?


I think PA means that he fell off the face of the earth compared to what he used to be.

Good point about Asmussen, he probably never even sees some of his horses for weeks or months on end, that's the definition of a paper guy.

[PaceAdvantage]

I don't know about "fell off the face of the earth." Though he certainly doesn't start as many horses. He's still quite active in Southern California, averaging around 200 starts/year.I was more referring to the fact that he did not enjoy anywhere near the level of success he had in the first 25 years of his career.

[macguy]

There's no doubt about that. I'm inclined to believe, perhaps, that he's semi-retired. If you're going to pick a place for that, there's nothing wrong with socal.

I don't know that for a fact, but it would seem to me after decades of racing large stables, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he was ready for a down-size.

[lamboguy]

the type of races that van berg has his horses entered into these days is like showing up to a gun fight with a knife.

[tubesockshakur]

the type of races that van berg has his horses entered into these days is like showing up to a gun fight with a knife.....yeah, its sad...the man is a legend.

[PaceAdvantage]

There's no doubt about that. I'm inclined to believe, perhaps, that he's semi-retired. If you're going to pick a place for that, there's nothing wrong with socal.

I don't know that for a fact, but it would seem to me after decades of racing large stables, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he was ready for a down-size.
It's not just recently though...he has won only one "name" race in the past 17 years!

[Foolish Pleasure]

Some things Lake said recently in response to the 5000wins.

Thunderello was his best horse, Smokey Mulder was his favorite horse.


and he gives himself less than no shot at getting to Baird saying something to the effect of the drive to win till this point saw him putting forth an effort that he doesn't believe he could replicate even if he wanted to.

[Valuist]

I don't follow the mid-Atlantic tracks much but is Lake suspended? I was looking at the Claiming Crown entries for GP and saw he had no entrants. He and Maker always used to have the most entrants.

[castaway01]

I don't follow the mid-Atlantic tracks much but is Lake suspended? I was looking at the Claiming Crown entries for GP and saw he had no entrants. He and Maker always used to have the most entrants.

He has horses entered in the next few days at Parx, Charles Town, Penn National, and Laurel, so he's not suspended. Lake still does well, but compared to the past he's not the unstoppable force he once was. He's only winning at 17% this year, which is practically mediocre compared to some trainers. He only has those "miracle moveups" at certain tracks at certain times these days and probably just doesn't have the caliber of horses for the Claiming Crown races this year.

[Hosshead]

In the span of a year and a half Van Berg trained Alysheba and won:

Kentucky Derby
Preakness
Super Derby
Strub Stakes
Santa Anita Handicap
San Bernardino Handicap
The Iselin
The Woodward
The Meadowlands Cup
The Breeders Cup Classic