Originally Posted by
racefair
jamie, i don't know a lot about the other partners that you mentioned and so it's difficult to make comment. Luke was getting horses from very experienced trainers such as heath, day etc. How could an owner expect belinda to do a better job than these trainers?
[vvv] geeze, i'm not going to buy into that one jett. i'm usually not at all adverse to firing in my two bob's worth but forgive me this time around as that's a 24 carat gold ome in spinner /does my arse look fat in these jeans style question. I'm on a hiding to nothing whatever i say in reply. all i will say is that i've known belinda & her family since she was a very young kid & i was still at school and i also know neil and lizzy. I greatly respect all of them as horsemen/horsewomen and as people in general.
if these owners were to be consistent then they would move them on from belinda who doesn't have a record or the skills and capabilities of these guys. . .that's unless there are other things at play in the mccarthy business that extend beyond general conditioning.
[vvv] is that a wind up or do you honestly think that belinda is just some dipsy bird who sits back and drinks cups of tea and plays with the baby and reads the women's weekly all day whilst all around her the business of running a racing stable occurs? Gimme a break. She no more sits back and watches the world go by than her mother has ever done with the day to day running of golden gait stud or than anne hancock ever did when brian's stable was at the height of its powers. Behind every successful man there's a women holding it all together. Lynne fitzpatrick is the same for paul. Maree caldow the same for john. Don't sell those harness racing ladies short mate. They're more often than not the ones holding it all together both in the foreground and in the background.
the performance of these horses over the coming weeks will provide for some interesting analysis.
[vvv] that's a very reasonable thing to be watching. No doubt you will not be alone in your vigil.
1. If belinda retains them. . My forecast would be that they perform to a similar level even though belinda doesn't have luke's skills or capabilities.
If this is the case, then it might suggest that luke's incredible results are due to things beyond that training alone. A point that not many can accept.
2. The horses move stable.. My forecast is that they will go backwards and the pundits will come out with some garbage that it's due to lukes facilities, scales, professionalism etc. Or something to that effect.
[vvv] in your eagerness to bag what you perceive to be belinda's compartive horsemenship capabilities...like many others you have roared right on by the the single biggest loss to that stable right now. it will not be belinda training them instead of luke that will make the difference to their results. Rather it will be the very significant loss of luke also driving them. Matt rue is an excellent driver, so don't get me wrong there, i'd put him up in a heartbeat...but he can of course only drive one horse at a time & quite often they had a couple to go in each race, luke on 1, matt on the other. Luke's services in the bike will be sorely missed i would expect.
so then if luke moved them to belinda's name ahead of time he was managing his risk around losing his license. Nothing wrong with that. . He's just too smart for everybody in this game.
[vvv] there is absolutely no requirement upon participants to read the rules any more no any less harshly than word for word exactly as they are written. the rules are the rules are the rules are the rules....and they are to be observed by participants as written and to be enforced by regulatory in the same manner.
it wasn't so long ago that the rules pertaining to another area were written in such a way as to allow a smart lionel hutz style law talkin' guy to get geoff small out from under a pretty fair charge by way of simply deliniating the blood system from the cardiovascular system, a successful defence which saw the wording of the rule changed.
in the same way that you only find out how good your insurance policy is when you make a claim, you only find out how good the rules of harness racing are when they're challenged. Rightly or wrongly, depending on your point of view, i expect this will be challenged. It might sound a bit odd right now...but even this, as unfortunate as it is...it will in fact amount to progress in the longer term just as the wording of the cardiovascular/blood system rules were changed so future lionel hutz's couldn't skip out via the same door.