One of the reasons I started focusing most of my betting on Graded Stakes is that I got tired of trying to keep track of all the suspected juice trainers making moves in the claiming ranks. However, I know people that have had betting success just studying the suspected juicers' patterns. Apparently, you can find overlays that way. Form, speed figures etc... are less useful.

I know some people believe there's a lot of juicing going on on Graded Stakes also, but I am less certain.

Some of the guys with great success in recent years are clearly getting much better stock because of their success. It feeds on itself. There's nothing suspicious about getting a barn full of young tigers or imports, patiently developing them, spotting them in races where they can win, and allowing them to move up the ladder as they mature. For as long as I've been around the game, there's been guys like that with great win percentages.

There's nothing wrong with getting a horse from another barn and moving him up sharply after a couple months.

It's not hard to imagine how one of the best trainers could figure out how to improve a horse coming from a barn where it was not getting the best care for minor injuries, not using proper equipment, or not getting other proper training.

What is suspicious is when the horse moves from one trainer that is highly regarded to a suspected juice guy and it moves up sharply within a couple of weeks. That's tough to explain, but it really doesn't happen that often in Stakes.