Quote:
Originally Posted by pandy
Yes, there's no question that generally speaking, Baffert has shown a good face to the sport most of the time (not always, he whines and complains when he doesn't get his way in Southern California). But his cheating is as obvious as it can be because you just don't get that lucky to have superstar horses, even if you buy expensive horses. Other trainers get to train very expensive well bred horses, like Pletcher, the Godolphin stables, and horses trained by Bill Mott, etc., and they win a lot of stakes races, but their horses run good races, not sensational races. Naturally, if you train a lot of good horses for a long time, eventually you may be lucky enough to get one horse that sets world records and does amazing things. But not a whole slew of them.
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I agree that the stats for Baffert indicate his ponies are not just running on hay, oats and water. Naturally, it doesn't prove anything, but reading between the lines it should give everyone pause. And in a sport that has significant public relations problems with perceived integrity, it's an excellent question to ask if Baffert is a net good or bad influence overall.
