Lukas and Conventional Training

Prefer this Los Alamitos pic to later ones showing a sartorially challenged Lukas as if he'd just graduated from clothing selection class. I like the man. A few quirks and foibles, to be sure, but, who is RR to cast the first stone. and, hey, RR can relate to former basketball coaches training horses. It happens.
A few querries before launching into my interest in Lukas, which is his training.

Does Lukas use the needle? No, would be the short answer. Can anyone imagine this guy getting satisfaction in winning by cheating?

Does top trainer Lukas make money for his clients? Fair question when you spend 72 mil on yearlings which earn $36 mil at the track in the 1980s. Answer: for most Lukas clients, probably not.

Does Lukas break down a higher percentage of horses? We are without the answer until someone does a statistical analysis. Until that time I'll take the word of Lukas's vets that Lukas injures about the same percentages as his contemporaries.

Now, on to training. In a prior post I wrote that Lukas refused to divulge his training to Ross Staaden for "Winning Trainers". As I read the book again this weekend 15 years after my first read, it actually went down as follows:

Staaden and Lukas entered Lukas's office. Staaden noticed Lukas's training logon the wall and pulled out his telescopic lens to photograph it. Lukas then stated: "Im uncomfortable with you photographing that chart." However, Lukas relented, permitted Staaden to photograph the log, and did discuss with Staaden his training in detail. It's all in the book. Page after page of training logs, and commentary by Lukas, Kiaren McLaughlin, the exercise riders and various observers. We do know almost exactly how Lukas trained in the last 1980s.

I'll get into the specifics in the next post, but first, the important matters of the day, the training of our Y.

Mon. 12/25/06: rest
Tues: 12/26/06: 15 min pasture romp missing one shoe. qualified as some fast work.
Wed. 12/27/06. I asked Nob, for whom I have complete respect, what is it now. We have lost two shoes in four days. Nob commented as I watched him shoe, that the horse just lost this one. It is several things said Nob. He showed me that this right front was also missing on one side significant horn at the quarter and toe, so that only three good nails could be driven. He demonstrated the sponginess of this hoof. But, said Nob, the significant factor here is we're using a cut down size 6 level grip shoe when we should be using a smaller size 5. Additionally, Anvil Co. was out of size 4 Australian nails, and so Nob is using Australian size 4 1/2 nails for this small hoof. Said Nob, the too big nails and too big shoe contribute to instability. I see. It took Nob so long to tack the shoe so it might hold it was too dark to ride. So, we did 10 min of easy riderless trot-gallop in the drying paddock. Will set us up for the coming days...