I figured you wouldn't believe the coughing story. :-)

At one point he had a long string of losers in graded company. Several of them clearly ran very subpar (they weren't just losing). I heard the coughing story. So I started avoiding his horses. A few more ran subpar after that. I can't remember if I read about it or if I was told about it by someone at the track. Either way, that wouldn't be the first time I heard a story like that and almost an entire barn went bad for a couple of weeks. AS far as I was concerned I had information that indicated his horses might not run well and they weren't. So I was right on top of it and a little more forgiving when they showed up again.