Originally Posted by
str
Well Mr. G and T that is a question without one answer.
No, I don't think it is the way they train. And they have not forgotten HOW to train. But the system they had either no longer works or they themselves have changed. Probably the latter .
Believe it or not, confidence is huge in this business. Having experienced being way up AND way down during my career, I have felt both. When I was way up, I was quite cocky inside, ( not outwardly, that's not my style), but my confidence as to what I could achieve was limitless. I was not reckless however. Always business like in my decisions.That said,I would claim horses that could not or never won . I would do my work and boom, they would win. I was rolling. For many years. I probably would have been accused of using drugs with some of the turn arounds my horse achieved. That was never the case but in today's world everyone has an opinion so I am sure I would have found that frustrating.
But.. when times got tough, everything seemed harder. And of course, because you didn't have all the resources you used to when times were better, there was added pressure to not make a mistake. As a trainer or an athlete, you just can't do that. Like a batter getting into the box and wanting to make sure they don't strike out. With that mind set, you are dead before you start. Same thing with training. Confidence carries over to the horse, jock, employees, etc.
Without it, everything gets very tough. And sometimes a trainer like that is trying so hard to win a big one to shine a light on them that had they trained many more and had others to run in those grade 1's, they might have taken a 30-1 shot from some big name race, and run it in grade 2's or 3's or allowance races and been the favorite and won several times. But they are trying to hit a home run. And the pressure to try and do that in any competitive sport is tremendous.
Another reason can be not wanting to lose the horse in a claiming race. This holds more trainers down than anything. Afraid to lose their horse because they need that small amount of income to keep afloat. But if you are rolling, you win, lose them, and claim two more.
Show me a constantly low % trainer and in most cases, it's where they place their horses in races.
Again, having lived both sides of it, I do not think anything is more difficult then pulling out of a prolonged slump or bad times with slow horses. I was able to do it, but I never got all the way back to where I was when I was the new kid in town.
In hindsight, it was probably a good thing in that, it allowed me to better appreciate what I had before as well as prepare me for later in life, ( now), when things are once again great, but I have that age and experience thing behind me. You can't buy that. You have to live it as I am sure you know. And as you also know, the word experience is code for learning about something because chances are you made plenty of mistakes prior to having that "experience". As long as you don't make the same ones twice you are doing pretty darn good I guess.
Sorry I can't explain better but it is truly an intangible that once it hits, it is very hard to shake. Zito really surprises me. He's a darn good trainer and a really nice, well grounded guy. Van Berg trained hundreds at a time and now has a fraction of that. Never knew Jack at all so it's hard for me to say more. Lukas does not surprise me with all that he created, and the way he did things, and then the tragic accident with his son and his passing recently. Wayne's world( no pun intended) came crashing down. I am amazed he still trains at all but it's that or quit and die I guess so I can't blame him. It's all he knows.