Quote Originally Posted by racefair View Post
Hi Jamie, I think that emotions extend beyond jealousy to dissapointment and frustration that even with the prizemoney increases and more money coming into the game, that most Sydney trainers and owners are still wasting their time when racing against Luke McCarthy.
He drives most of his horses confidently from any barrier, can death seat and still gets them home.
With 88 wins and over $850,000 in stakes already this season, he has taken a big amount out of the game.
Furthermore, he gets horses off good tainers such as Heath (Excel Stride) and Day (Roman Stride) because of his ability to improve anything. Some say that his transformation of horses in such a short space of time is unnatural.
Why would an owner give their horse to any trainer other than Luke McCarthy? That's a bad question for the livelyhood/business of any other trainer in Harness Racing that wishes to race in Sydney or in Group1 races.
Both horse's you mention have ability and done a good job for there previous trainer's, Excel stride has not raced for Luke as yet but i would not be suprised if he does improve a little but that could also be because of the way Luke drive's them (American Style) as for Roman Stride it could be that the change of stable was good for him as Luke has a swimming hole and day yards for them to stretch there leg's where that was not available to the horse before.