57% win percentage??

[Jean]

He is still winning even coming out of "detention" barn which there is no official one in Alberta

[ireneinwa]

Quote from article I found "In a mere 13 starts in this young season, he has registered a whopping 10 wins, one second-place finish and two third-place results".


Dated back the 5th of June 2009

There's got to be illegal additives per say, you say. Well 55 days past since then, and I say....Hooray for him! Who ever he maybe Keep up the good work

[Dave C]

.A percentage like this although impressive is death to the little guy who can never win a race. And we o still need the little guys in business.
Not all horseman up there are bad horsemen as Dave would indicate. It takes a decent to good horseman to successfully train cheap horses consistantly with success.

The problem isn't that he's taking wins away from the little guy, (they're still winning their share) he's taking away wins and percentages from the big barns. That's where the accusations and pressure on the stewards is coming from. The owners with horses in the big expensive barns are asking their trainers tough questions.

There have always been a few trainers who've maintained high percentages at NP, but they've always had small enough barns to not make it onto the leader board so the big trainers didn't worry about them. A few years back one of the vets sat in the backstretch kitchen with a bunch of trainers and noted that the leading trainer by percentage on the grounds was borderline 'Downs syndrome' and hardly required any vet work because he took such good care of his horses. Not a minute later your friends' significant other (this was before they met) was scheduling for him to stop by the next morning to give a bunch of horses injections. Of course there are some good horsemen on the grounds, they're the ones keeping Jim Meyard from winning every race he enters.

[theballandchain]

.Cool. 57 percent is like superhuman. Good for that guy! I bet he thanks all y'all for the free advertising!
I am cheering for the dude. Maybe he can maintain his momentum for the whole meat. That would be huge!

[Tucumcari]

I like you Dave won't be surprised if there is a little something hinky going on. And I think it's right that he has been slapped on the hand and in in the make shift det barn. I think it speaks well of the racing powers that be there.

[Dave C]

Actually I said I wouldn't be shocked if he was using something, but I see no evidence that he is.

[NorthStar]

Why is it that when someone in racing is doing well people always bring up illegal drug use.

Why can't you just enjoy the sport and congrats to the guy.

Why can't we all just watch and maybe learn? Just hope we learn it is true horsemanship and not one step ahead of the current test capabiltities.

If he's doing something right and good for the horse, then all the power to him and hope he leaves the chemists packing for parts unknown. If he's just a better chemist, he'll get caught. Start tracking his horses.

[Jean]

2 more winners last night! AMAZING!

[dray33]

What's his winning percentage now?

[Dave C]

He's in the low 50's at NP, about 40% for the year. He was at about 10% racing at Fonner Park through the spring. Scoring at 80% through the first month at NP really helped his percentage. The fact that he was only at 10% at Fon means: all the trainers at Fon were using the same thing, he found it lying on the side of the road between Fon and NP, a vet at NP is giving it to him and not giving it to anyone else. He has had a very good percentage coming up from Fon for the past couple of years, but his barn was only half the size so no one paid any attention to him, and in the past the horses he was competing against were much more fit at the beginning of the meet so the racing was tougher and he scored at around 40% without embarrassing the big barns.

Last night he won a 22k claiming race with a horse that won for him last out for 10k and he claimed the race before that out of a 7.5k nw3L. It sounds very impressive until you look at the field he was running against. If you were willing to put up 22k, you should have got the entire field plus the grooms. Of the 7 other horses, 2 were dropping and were dropping because the jockeys needed binoculars to see the winners in those tougher races. The horse that finished 2nd was ran last summer for 10k at DmR without getting a piece, and hadn't got a sniff at NP until he ran for 13k. The other 4 horses could have been had for 5 or 7.5k within the last 2 months. He didn't beat much. What raises red flags however is that his horse has improved his race times by about 1.5 secs since he was claimed.

[dray33]

I can see having a good winning percentage if you are claiming and dropping horses in for the purse (class drop). You don't need an increase in speed. You need the horse to run. My hope would be that he is smart enough to know that winning at this percentage raises eyebrows and alerts, and that he doesn't care because he is clean, and just doing it right and catching the necessary breaks. It's not up to him to prove to the industry he is playing fairly... that's the job of the track, and industry itself. If legit, he deserves congratulations. If not, the door.

[George William Smith]

They had to let him out of the Detention barn, because his winning percentage was 100%. LOL

According to the rulings, the detention barn was actually a perimeter set by the track veterinarian. Only at Northland...hmmm, who has actual legal access to drugs on the grounds....why, gee that must the the track veterinarian.... not implying anything, just ironic, that's all

And I have watched him spend hours hand walking himself problem horses, something one could get Northlands trainers to do even if the client paid them. I have also seen him school horses in the paddock during track and actual live race date times and handle the horses with great care who obviously needed the extra attention, sweating, etc. Again this is something that most trainers leave to their grooms but not him.

It seems from what I've seen, his patience is endless and not at all like the rumors of a guy who abused horses.....back-biting is a fairly common trait of trainers that take short cuts.

George William Smith

[majxmom]

Anybody whose win percentage goes up in the detention barn must be the real deal. I assume they don't let you in there with an Air Power syringe.

[Jean]

He and his girlfriend also gallop, pony all their own and don't have to rely on the word of gallop people who think they are trainers as many do at Northlands. Most are extremely inexperienced. They also take their horses regularly to their farm and treat them like horses. Break their own etc.

[wilf]

A funny thing happened to me a few years ago, I won 10 out of my first 25 runners and sustained that 40% clip throughout the meet until my horses were claimed,went sore or won out their conditions. It was fun being on a roll like that but I only had eight stalls and few clients so the run petered out when I failed to replenish my stock. A trainer needs many factors to come into play to sustain a run like that even if he has the stock such as a favourable condition book and your races filling with horses you can actually beat! I pondered the situation for awhile as I work virtually alone in the shedrow and had little time to myself. One day a light bulb went on in my head when I realised that my success was directly in synch with the Milkshaking tests being introduced.....Voila! A level playing field , well whaddyaknow! Some of those milkshakers never saw the winner's circle again and I did not feel bad for them one bit. Of course since then the Epogen scam bent the sport out of shape and I returned to the single digits. Recently I have moved from Colonial Downs to Mountaineer Park and my horses are waking up again and therein lies another vital angle , the change of scenery..............I love it!