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[aaron]

Originally Posted by AskinHaskin

"By Andrew Beyer
July 18, 2003

The racing game continually changes in subtle ways, and horseplayers must adapt to the changes in order to survive. But in recent years, bettors have observed one change so profound that it has altered the sport and the nature of handicapping: the rise of the super-trainer.

Of course, horseplayers have always known that it is essential to consider the strengths, weaknesses and overall competence of thoroughbred trainers. In modern-day racing, at tracks large and small from coast to coast, certain trainers have become as important as the horses themselves.

The super-trainers achieve winning percentages that defy all the traditional norms of their profession. In the past it was extraordinary for a trainer to win with as many as 25 percent of his starters. Of the top 35 race-winning trainers in 1980, only one (future Hall of Famer Bud Delp) reached that figure. When the great horseman Bill Mott had the best year of his career, operating an exceptionally powerful stable that included horse of the year Cigar, he won with 24 percent of his starters. But such a performance would represent a mini-slump for many of the contemporary super-trainers, who dominate race meetings by winning at a 30 or 40 percent clip."



Which is it going to be? "years" or "Race meetings"




It should be observed that Baffert has qualified during a full year only once since he got serious about Thoroughbreds, and for that he needed

Game Winner 4/4
Justify 6/6
McKinzie 4/5

to get him over the 30% marker.


Of course he's qualified this year so far, but that is mostly to point and laugh at all of the idiots.


Strange the way the doper of the century in racing has better numbers after getting caught red handed than he did before he was caught.



Meanwhile, the superest Super Trainer of them all remains one Mark Hanson (now a winner with 19 of his past 28 TB starters), and who not long ago ended a six-calendar-year stretch during which he won with 169 of 407 Quarter Horse starters.


Beyer also conveniently fails to mention field sizes as an obvious reason why some trainers of today have considerably better winning percentages than do those of yesteryear.

The idiot score has gone from about 10% to that of 14% or so.

I don't think Beyer ever thought of Baffert as a juice trainer, especially not back then.