Super Trainers

[trotman]

This is not intended to be a sore loser rant but more about what the hell is going on in the sport we invest in. I can't believe that none of the authorities have not started to investigate the "Super Training Feats" of Mr. Jamie Ness. Mr. Ness when I last looked is winning at a 47% clip at Tampa and 40% overall in North America, second I might add to Steven Asmussen who has 4 times the amount of horses running at all tracks. If you look at most of Mr. Ness's stock they are nothing more than everyday claimers that fill the bulk of all races in North America, but it is stock that other trainers could not win with and had given up on. Yet if you look at his horses in post parade you would think they are the equine version of "The Hulk". They all go off as chalk and from the moment the gate springs open they go flat out and there is no bottom to them and yet on new claims by Mr. Ness there is nothing, numbers or otherwise which would lead any handicapper to believe that this horse was about to wake up. I remember back in the 90's a good friend Frank Passero set the record for consecutive wins at Gulfstream and rather than have Frank bask in his achievement one who will go unnamed put his fist through the pressbox wall at Gulfstream because he lost a bet and started what was the famous investigation of Frank Passero. This investigation was eventually called off and Frank was proven innocent but this wrong doing almost ruined his career. I don't bring this up because I'm a sore loser but it's with concern over the game I have for over 40 years, made a living at investing on the horses. Because of these "Training Miracles" I just have to write off any race in which Mr. Ness has a starter so therefore the game I have been apart of is pushing me away. In closing I will say that at the least Mr. Ness has the right name because at this point he believes he is "Untouchable".

[lsosa54]

Can't disagree with you. In SoCal, I'm very wary of betting against folks like Mike Mitchell and Jeff Mullins. It's just not worth it as there are just too many situations where there is no logical explanation for how much their horses move up, even if the reasons are not illegal.

It costs me money and I get frustrated, so I've learned over the years. There are plenty of other opportunities.

[trotman]

Isosa 54 that's what most of us do forget the race. What probably bothers me the most is that most racetrack management think they put out the best possible product and in many cases that's true. And the racing commissions of each state or province, not all though do nothing. So between the ones that turn a blind eye to what is going on, racing is on a slide downwards in the eye of the public. If these few tracks and commissions continue to allow what we see to happen then I think racing is doomed because all their lip service and bling means nothing.

[pktruckdriver]

Now I know for a fact, as I saw it being done over and over, that winners at Saratoga this summer and 2nd and 3rd were tested before being sent back to the barns, this must be done else where too.

The same was going on a few years ago too in Mid Atlantic tracks, in the claiming and winning, it is the nature of the business, when there is no money to be made in a race , PASS, there is always another race that will give you opportunity, this is fact.

As for Steve, his stable is very large, Todd was like this, as were others before them, and others will be after, it ebbbs and flows.


I am glad I am not Ness, but I am sure his horses are tested, if not then maybe I am wrong and you might be right, but surely this day and age , testing is the norm...

patrick

[trotman]

Patrick I know they test winners 2nd,3rd and any abnormal finish horse but the cost of staying ahead of the super trainers and what they use is pie in the sky as far as I've been told by a commission vet, each state or province cannot afford it. The biggest joke is the allergic reaction to lasix which the horse doesn't perform and it is rampant in the Standardbreds. He told me that the hours prior to a race when lasix is administered after all the pre-race miles before the race is enough time for the reaction to appear yet nothing is done and the horse races sub-par. And who pays for that, we do the uninformed public. As I have said many times before. If the line in the sand is the money the greed will be all over that line.

[trotman]

I had an e-mail with regards to the Frank Passero mess in the 90's at Gulfstream and I guess many might not know or heard about what happened and I guess I should have been more clear in my thread. Frank Passero did nothing more than take advantage of the situation that was presented by Gulfstream ownership. In their efforts to attract more horses they decided to relax the rule on claims where if you claimed a horse you were not required to step up in class the new claim or put your horse in jail for thirty days to be able to run the new claim in the same claiming class. Because Frank had a piece or the largest piece of each horse he had in his barn and did not want interference from a sole owner where a horse should run. This relaxed claiming rule was made to order for the boss which was Frank and the rest was a true training feat. Where ever Frank raced a horse he was the best buddy of the $2 rail birds, a blue collar guy just like them and understood them and was happy to see them cashing on one of his horses. There were many characters who had a hand in trying to crush Frank for what he did but I and my handicapping partner were there and saw it all happen live and Frank was just going about his business of being one of the best claiming trainers in the business.