The horse is taking a back seat to the business itself!

[smartyalex]

http://drf.com/news/article/81912.html

I COULDN'T AGREE MORE!

I just finished reading that article and was going to start a thread on it myself... I thought it was a good article. As with so many other industries, the small scale, hands-on operation is getting shoved out by the behemoths. Some day when I have horses of my own I'll send them to a hands-on trainer--if there are any left.

I thought the best part of the article was this bit: "The successful trainer today is self-promoting," he said. "That in itself isn't necessarily bad, but you don't have the hands-on trainers you used to have. They're relying on assistants to tell them if a horse has a sore shin or a horse didn't eat up last night."

[blackthroatedwind]

Well, while obviously the Pletcherization of racing is, IMO, not an overall good for the game, I am sorry if I can't feel badly for EVERY trainer who doesn't make it. As a horseplayer who has seen Pete Vestal's horses run for quite some time I can say he was hardly a trainer who I looked to bet on or trusted to develop a horse. No malice, and I wish him well, but I think there are far better trainers struggling because many owners are flocking to a few trainers.