Quote:
Originally Posted by classhandicapper
There was period where it didn't produce a winner for awhile and some people thought it was fading. I don't remember the exact years, but I remember the conversations.
Baffert is in a different league now. He gets so many top young horses every year now it's bound to produce major contenders regularly.
|
Probably was the synthetic surface years (although Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky was in that era).
Baffert hasn't had a complete run of the CA table. Wayne Lukas, Dave Hofmans, Neil Drysdale, John Shirreffs, Doug O'Neill, and Art Sherman have all won classic races with California horses (though not all started in the SA Derby) since 1996.
Quote:
|
These things have to be somewhat random also. If there are "x" major preps, each one is going to have a dry spell from time to time even if nothing has actually changed in terms of trainer preferences.
|
A few years back I did a tally and all the major preps pretty much were on even terms with classic winners and classic-placed horses. All the calendar changes in the last few years have skewed things considerably.
