Mike, your points are valid and understood... what I don't agree with is your level of certainty on the issue. I can't imagine anything that is "absurd or ridiculous" when we're talking about a trainer who gets negative 4s out of his third stringers and when teamed with Tabor, just off the top of my head...

- in 05 has a contender miss the Fla derby due to a foot bruise but comes back 2 weeks after that to run a 7 pt top negative 3 off a 6 week break, then return to oblivion

- in 02 has king kong of a sprinter stretch out in the Whitney to beat a solid field and tie the Toga track record (aren't tracks getting slower?) in his first stakes win going 2 turns, then never returns to the track and doesn't live to see his next birthday, as the 3rd TAP stakes winner to drop dead that year

- in 95, with TAP as asst, wins the derby by open lengths as his jock, in 2nd best acting performance of career, gives Pat Day suspicious looking extended "handslap" shortly after wire

So if CQ, who's none little wrong in his career, wins the derby off 8 weeks, would it be such a surprise for these guys?

Maybe my problem is that while I slave away 9 to 5 just to keep up with the increasing cost of housing, gas and food I imagine a guy like Tabor is sitting on one of his yachts, bored, and contemplating ways to amuse himself by breaking the rules, a la Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown.