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Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind
I guess I can see your point but he seems to have more defenders than detracters.
Personally I think there is some legitimacy to knocking his TC performance in that he not only gets an enormous amount of well bred and high priced young horses but has also won an abundance of 2YO races in the past and it is somewhat baffling how poorly his horses have progressed. On the other hand, he has only been on his own for 11 seasons, and really only a strong factor for five or six, so it's hard to be TOO critical. It's hardly as though he has been anything close to a failure.
As for the BC failure, well to me he is a trainer who points for the whole year, unlike a lot of people who do seem to race with the BC too much in mind. I would rather have Pletcher's resume of success in stakes races throughout the season than one BC win. Perhaps someone COULD say he squeezes the lemon dry, so to speak, before the BC but he certainly wins a LOT of big races while doing that. He gets a lot of good horses....but he does win a lot of races. Does he underperform? Hard to say but on the surface it's hard to say he does.
My criticisms are different, and not even necessarily about his training, but more about the damage to the game of one trainer controlling too many horses. Plus, I don't like the list of horses that have flashed brilliance only to fizzle out way too quickly. He seems to train for the moment rather than the long haul. On the other hand, who am I to tell someone he is doing it wrong when every owner on Earth seems to want to give him horses.
Let's face it, it's hard to not be somewhat cynical about the game these days, and anyone achieving huge success falls under suspicion. Is it always fair? Absolutely not. However, when a trainer faces drug related suspensions it doesn't exactly bolster any claims of purity.
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at this point i don't think pletcher takes too much heat, but he's still got a long career ahead of him...i don't think he will ever get as much criticism as lukas because of the differences in personality. lukas has always been viewed as ****y and smug, certainly not things i've ever seen anyone say about pletcher.
as for the drug violations--like the writer wrote the other day, what do the top three trainers have in common? they're all suspended due to drug violations. and then pletcher gets to serve his suspension at the slowest time of the year. this tiger has no teeth! the drug policies in racing need work. they need to set a workable standard, but then they need to have the right policies in place, and correct punishments that fit the bill and are tough enough that a trainer would truly hesitate before attempting to get around the system ever again. i feel they got asmussens attention. but this suspension for pletcher is probably going to be considered no more than a nuisance or minor inconvenience for him.