Lance:

Your take is very valid, but as in any other sport, it is difficult to compare
the great ones of days past against the present stars.

Even without discussing performance enhancing methods, trainers like Pletcher
and Dutrow and to a lesser extent Tom Amoss (who also maintains a gaudy win
percentage) train huge public stables. The greats of the past who you mentioned
--Jerkens, Ben Jones, Whittingham-- usually never had more than 50 or so head
stabled at the track at any one time; Pletcher maintains the D Wayne Lukas model
stable with 150- 200 horses of various ability racing on many fronts and for
the most part actually being trained by competent assistants.

Ben Jones and Allen Jerkens spent large parts of their illustrious careers
training private stables, not cherry picking the creme de la creme from high
priced auction purchases. Ben Jones had to take some crooked legged Calumet
runners along with the champions; Allen Jerkens did the same for Hobeau Farms
and Bohemia Stables.

Pletcher will retire one day with probably the greatest training record ever
amassed (and yes it is inevitable that he will eventually win BC and Triple
Crown races) but probably will never be recognized as a horseman in the league
of Jerkens, Woody Stephens, Whittingham, King Leatherbury, Laz Barrera and Ben
Jones (sorry P-Dub if I'm unbalanced East to West). These guys are all part
horse, while TAP has more of the qualities of a Fortune 500 CEO. If TAP is
indeed a great horseman, he will never get credit for it.

Also agree about Barry Irwin. Any man who says that drugs are the scourge of
Racing but then eulogizes Doc Harthill in the BloodHorse is undergoing inner
conflict. Doc Harthill could have gone down as the greatest equine vet of all
time, but instead used his talents to tilt the playing field as severely as
possible. My memory of Doc Alex Harthill--womanizer, race fixer, master
chemist,and despite all that, the one man you want to show up if your horse was
in a bad way in the middle of the night.