Plonk: Bob Baffert Babies are Delirious at Del Mar. (Do you believe it's real?)
 

All 8 horses looked like runners to me, last year he did not have near the barn of two year olds headed into the meet, everyone knew that, and he didnt have a good two year old meet. So is this incredible new wonder method didnt exist last season?

I just happen to think he, and Hollendorfer, have been very strong and the others not as much. Last year Mullins, Ruis and Mandella had some nice horses in the barn at this time.

He is the current D. Wayne Lukas of the 80's. Gets easily the best horses on the planet. But he's good too and that's why he continues to get em.

In MSW company, he was 17-6-3-1 at the 2017 DM meet. He blanked in the graded stakes (Sorrento/Debutante, Best Pal/Futurity), but got Grade 1-placings out of Zatter and Alluring Star, both of whom dropped off the face of the earth.

In that regard, the lack of durability is perhaps the reason why one would say--despite hitting at over 33%--that Baffert didn't have a "good" two year old meet last year.

He had several touted runners. In addition to the two already mentioned: St. Patrick's Day, Solomini, Nero, Serengeti, Soul Streit, Diamondsandpearls and Just A Smidge all faded away or didn't pan out.

There is no guarantee any of the 8 from this year will be any different.

I still wonder what are the magic potion combinations that seem to be working and flying-under-the-radar for these super trainers with dozens or hundreds of horses. It just seems, well, almost impossible to have the majority of your stable to be that good and have runners win by daylight on tracks that play like quicksand.

Thats all true, I can only tell you what I head before the meets, this year I had heard he was loaded, didnt hear the same thing last year.

Maybe he over performed with some of those horses because he is always aggressive at Del Mar.

Another thing that is much different in his barn, if you cant run your not staying around with that outfit, most barns that is not the case so seeing gaudy win percentages just doesnt strike me as odd.

There could be some credence to out of race methods that are putting some guys ahead of the game.

I feel like everyone is doing something.

I definitely agree with this. It's only a matter of time.

Mullins was caught syringing herbal cough syrup into a horse's mouth in New York, O'Neill with the milkshaking, and Baffert with giving thyroxine. Then you have the mysterious case of Miller, who seems to bat a high win average, that had a horse suddenly drop dead - and the CHRB confirms it was not cardiac-related. I am really eager to know what they do find outside of the glyphosate contamination because that could open a big can of worms.

It could be Not-in-competition performance drugs administered prior to racing...maybe trainers are realizing that future races are “won” in training weeks prior to their actual running...I think the CHRB is trying to address out-of-competition drug issues as we speak...if the rules don’t address it, they aren’t doing anything wrong, I guess...

See the part on medication about half-way through this doc...good stuff they talk about here...http://www.chrb.ca.gov/Board/board_m...t_18-06-21.pdf starts at the bottom of page 58...

When you are sent the very best breedings, it makes your job easier.

2nd, Thyro-L didn't work like it was supposed to and w/out consequences, and I'm sure the chemists are always finding something undetectable and new to peddle.

B could not be doing anything "different" than every other racehorse trainer. All these trainers have been able to observe each other for 30 years or so.
He works 'em fast, but that isn't it.

He buys horses from the same place everyone else does right?

Then what happens? Do they go to some kind of area 51 for horses?

And the best one was still back at the barn....

Yep, later at the brief SA fall meet, he went 4 for 5 in MSWs on the main track unveiling:

Dream Tree
Mourinho
McKinzie
High Drama

All went by the wayside by early spring, though a couple are close to comeback starts.

Dream Tree runs sunday in the prioress.