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To expand on my above post, I think the owner is more significant than the trainer in this equation. You can get an owner like Gary Barber that just bets on all his starters, and his money tells you nothing. However, Mr. Roche lived in Yakima, a solid 2 hour drive to Seattle, and for him to come across the Cascade mountain passes in order to place a bet on his horse would have been an entire day committed to this for a very busy man who did not have any method of off-track betting available to him. Barber likes betting for the sake of the rush, Mr. Roche only filled up the gas tank and pulled out his wallet when he knew he was getting his money back.
At that time handle at Longacres was respectable, not Santa Anita by any sense of the imagination, but $3000 on a horse at even money at post time was no guarantee to even tick it down 20 cents. $3000 on a horse at Emerald at post time would make a 5/1 3rd choice the 4/5 chalk. Things have changed around here, that's for sure.
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