Just read Jim Squires new book \"The Headless Horseman\" and heartily recommend it.. There is also an interview with him on the Blood Horse site that is worth listening to. He certainly sounds like someone who would be an ally to JB in his battle to regulate the \"juicers\".

TGJB: Just got the book, haven\'t read it yet.

Boscar Obarra: Yes, this is a must read for anyone in the game.

  If only 1/2 of what he says is true, it\'s a sad story. Explains a lot though.

Ill-bred: It\'s a decent, entertaining read.

I like where Larry Jones says he\'s going to wake that horse up \"when we get to Delaware\" and then he gets to Delaware, but he gets the clenbuterol positive and says he was framed.

TGJB: Yeah, exactly. I\'m almost done with the book, and I agree with the spirit of it, but disagree with some of the conlusions, and the opinions about some of the individuals. It\'s kind of loose and scattershot.

Anyway, those who bet Delaware in the summer of 08 (or made figures for it) will remember almost every Larry Jones runner jumping out of its skin when it got there relative to the figures it had run before. Woke up indeed.

Boscar Obarra: I believe he says that \'wake up\' meant he (Jones) would ride the horse in the am works.

 I couldn\'t say what kind of mojo Jones had at Delaware, but would Squires have printed that if he thought it referred to anything unseemly?

 Whatever the flaws are, I\'d say the book reveals more about how certain \'lines\' of trainer types came to dominate over the last few decades than anything else I\'ve seen.

 Also explains , probably not for the first time, how some yearlings bring ludicrous prices at sale.

TGJB: Seriously, you think Jones getting on all those horses movd them up 5-10 lengths?

And what makes you think Sqires would know? Would you tell him? The guy writes books.

sighthound: \"Wake up\" did refer to Jones getting on the horse.

TGJB, are you forgetting the other things that happened to Jones\' horses at Churchill?

Boscar Obarra: Jerry, I\'ve been around since before the days of the Most Wondrous Oscar Barrera, so no, I don\'t think a fat guy working a horse would move them up 10 lengths. Might give them swayback though.

 No, a trainer using is not going to tell the owner, unless they are needing to know for betting purposes. I\'m sure certain barns regularly tell their \'gambling\' owners when the horse is on or off.

 I know very little of Jones, but most of the book rings true, if a bit self serving.

TGJB: Don\'t know what things you refer to at CD. I do know I was looking at a group of horses that went into Delaware with figure histories (not just at CD) of several races and established tops, that immediately catapulted into the stratosphere, Scott Lake style. I\'ll post Stones River later, take a look at the figures at Del and Pha compared to what he has run at everywhere else, before and since.