Sidebar

[Indulto]

Originally Posted by cj

A lot has been made recently about super trainers and improvement. Now, I certainly realize that Beyer speed figures aren't the be all and end all of performance evaluation, but they are a fairly accurate measure by most people's estimations. That said, I decided to look at my book Champions and see in the 90s and early 2000s what kind of similar improvements I could find to recent Dutrow and Wolfson's recent work. Keep in my mind, we are talking about the top trainers and best horses in the game.…

So you didn’t get the idea of looking there from Kling?

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2009/02/02/sports/horseracing/doc4987ce32ecd9b562231384.txt
Rick Dutrow: Maven or menace?
By Nick Kling February 3, 2009 12:10 AM EST

… In an attempt to determine if similar improvement was achieved by other stakes-caliber horses, I consulted the book, "Champions," from DRF Press. It contains the lifetime past performances of Eclipse and other champion Thoroughbreds from decades past.

In the 1990s, when Beyer figures became a regular feature of DRF, there were several Eclipse-winning Thoroughbreds whose best figure rose 20-30 points or more in the several months between the summer of their juvenile year and the start of their three-year-old season. As Casey Stengel said, you can look it up. …