Lane's End Afterthoughts

[TreadHead]

West Side Bernie\'s sheet looked exactly like what you would want in a Derby wager, until this race.  Should he be viewed negatively after this somewhat off performance, or can it be excused given he got back to his 2 yr old top 1st out at 3?

Also, the Lukas horse that finished second, his sheet looks somewhat similar to that of Proud Citizen and Charismatic.  Does the crack-down on drugs/steroids now mean that the \"leg-snapper\" Lukas tactics will come back into vouge and be the only way to get quick results?

[jimbo66]

What does \"leg-snapper\" mean?

[TreadHead]

Can\'t remember when I first heard him referred to that back in the 90s (perhaps it was even on this board), but I believe the name (while obviously hyperbole) is rooted in the fact that he races 3 year olds into the ground by spacing races out only 2 or 3 weeks for several months at a time.  See Charismatic\'s sheet in the archives for an example.

Seeing that horse come in second last Saturday just made me start thinking, if new regulations really are capable of cleaning up the game, reducing the number of large jumpups (surface changes not withstanding) and reducing the number of -3s that are followed up with another negative number, staying ahead of the game may require figuring out what other trainers (and tactics) might still be capable of producing large jumps.  

Lukas\'s (dangerous?) tactics, while certainly questionable in terms of the long-term soundness of the horse, do seem to be able to produce such jumps, and have for many years it would seem.  Of course I could be kidding myself and he may be using the sauce just as much as the rest of them.