Horses that ran more than once a week

[Bill Lyster]

In this day and age of seemingly ever fragile horses, the exploits of Oscar Barrera in the 70's and 80's on the New York circuit are truly remarkable. I spent a lot of time then trying to learn about trainer moves and no one stuck out more than Oscar. So many times he would claim a horse on Sunday, jump him in class and run him back on Wednesday and then again on the following Saturday, often winning or placing at higher classes. No one ran horses more often with such startling results. Even then, running horses that often was not a popular tactic, yet I never remember his being a subject of suspension. I was never close to New York racing so I could have missed some of the behind the scenes actions of the NYRA but I did read the Form several times a week.

Anyone have a clue why he could do what he did so successfully and why he had few trainers, if any, try to copy his methods? I assume that he must have run through quite a lot of stock with those methods.