Top Ten Racehorse Trainers of All-Time

[Shammy Davis]

Would these be your choices?

http://www.horseracing.co.uk/history/to ... iners.html

[Mahubah]

I'm assuming these represent the writer's opinion of the ten best living trainers and not necessarily the best of all time -- even given the obvious slant towards the British Commonwealth (not surprising given the source, which I'm not criticizing; an American publication would probably be just as slanted towards North American-based trainers), one could hardly ignore luminaries of yesteryear such as the Hon. George Lambton and Fred Darling in England or the remarkable father and son records of James Rowe, Sr. and James Rowe, Jr. in the pre-World War II era and Ben and Jimmy Jones in the mid-20th century.

A look at some of the best American trainers of all time that's well worth a read is Masters of the Turf, by Ed Bowen.

[zinn21]

The article's heading is "All Time" yet these are all living trainers. I am not that familiar with European trainers but my list would have to include Charlie Whittingham, Buster Millerick, Hirsch Jacobs, Woody Stephens and Allen Jerkens. I leave Sunny Jim Fitzimmons off because of his gross miss management of Seabiscuit under his watch..

[Shammy Davis]

Mahubah wrote:

I'm assuming these represent the writer's opinion of the ten best living trainers and not necessarily the best of all time -- even given the obvious slant . . .

I just thought it was interesting that all the trainers were still active or, at the very least, alive. Apparently, the author's selection process was void of historical information and perspective.

Zinn21 wrote:

. . . I leave Sunny Jim Fitzimmons off because of his gross miss management of Seabiscuit under his watch..

Zinn21, you are tough nut to crack when it comes to "great trainers." I would have put him at the top of list.

[wilf]

Another utterly useless list of narrow focus that seems to permeate our lives and fills a few pages to complete a day's work for some poor office clerk. However it does ignite informed debate which is better than watching Fox news and may educate some of those newcomers to racing . The link is actually the best result as it opens up an interesting website to explore. If you click on the list of jockeys then you can see how much respect is given to American riders. To name Gai Waterhouse on the list is a travesty as she is actually an Aussie by birth and her father T.J.Smith may just be the greatest of all time as he led the trainer's list in N.S.W. for 33 years and certainly was the hardest working man alive. His battles with Bart Cummings and Colin Hayes in the 60's 70's and 80's were legend and there is a wonderful dvd out from Australia which gives a great insight into the lives of these 3 men and how they became "The Dominators". I only wish for the luxury of the same to watch the deeds of Fitzsimmons, Jacobs, Stephens,Luro,Whittingham et al to see how they made their way in life and racing

[Whirlaway]

I'd have to toss in Nafzger, Ben Jones and Laz Barrera.

[Lisann]

My husband says Carl Nafzagar is an animal abuser I think he saw him hit a horse on its head on TVG....

[wilf]

Many horses have abused my head and they always win !

[Lisann]

Oh, my head has been abused, too. My filly broke my nose - that's what we get for naming her "Perfect Jab".

[ratherrapid]

Gai Waterhouse as best looking

[Aug27]

Opinions ... everybody has one!
In my lifetime, following U.S. horses since the 1970s and looking at results (not how they achieved those results), I'd include
Charlie Whittingham
Woody Stephens
Ron McAnally
Bobby Frankel
Shug McGaughey
Wayne Lukas
Jonathan Shepherd
Mack Miller
Allen Jerkens
Bob Baffert

In no particular order.

I know some of these guys are highly controversial (e.g., Lukas and Baffert), but I'm looking back over results from say 1970 through 2005. Over the past five years, Pletcher's showed big earnings, but the sheer numbers (stable size), purses, and changes in shipping have made any straight comparison to earlier years inappropriate.

[zinn21]

I would disagree on Wayne Lukas. He was innovative and very aggressive but he sent more babies packing than he ever developed. Now that he doesn't have the numbers he develops nothing. Had a pretty nice colt in Dublin and ground him up trying to get TV time on the Derby trail. Sad...