Super Trainer Definition and Baffert
The super trainer thread devolved into a "he said, she said" rant about drugs. The linked article talks about Lukas being the first with more than 40-50 horses stabled in one place, in a sense transitioning from trainer to CEO. That led me to look at some statistics from Equibase for 2017.
For the 2017 year for North America Baffert horses had 313 starts.
Asmussen had 1,909 starts. Casse had 1,323. Pletcher had 1,053. Hollendorfer had 971. Chad Brown had 820. Super sized indeed.
If you go by "Starters" instead of Starts Baffert ranked 55th.
That indicates to me that he has a much smaller barn and in that sense operates more like a Charlie Whittingham than a modern "super trainer".
He is super successful by just about any definition, but the way he does it seems to be quite different than the other big names.
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