I don't know what good horses he had in 22/23 but maybe he hasn't been able to attract good horses to replace them. Hasn't put his prices up has he? From a personal and general perspective, I'm thinking good horses demand high prices and those owners that can afford such high prices can afford better trainers and better jockeys for their horses. So it would boil down to some canny planning and placing of lesser horses to give them the best chances of winning Just my simple thinking on the matter for what it's worth
If racing was all about the best horses costing the biggest money, we wouldn’t do it and we wouldn’t bet on it. You can find gems at all price points, and for me that is one of the issues with the yard in question. Previously they could find ten or fifteen horses at the sales or privately that come from lesser yards or yards that struggle to get horses to run to their potential and then get them to win a few races on the trot. Plaisir De Flos and Mortlach are two of these that I can think of. Currently they are getting horses in from elsewhere (Liverpool Knight this weekend as an example), and they are running awfully. They do have a few good horses in Crambo, Tripoli Flyer and Horaces Pearl and a potentially top mare in Dysart Enos. These could all give them the big wins they crave. The yard also have some good bumper horses lined up, we saw one this weekend at Aintree and they’ve got others too. However they aren’t going to fill the void left by the results so far. basically it already looks like it’s a Cheltenham festival winner or bust kind of season. You’d think the most likely outcome is the one that gets repeated.
That is very true and conversely some 7 figure foals/yearlings aren't much cop. I think there is a very large element of eye + a good understanding/knowledge of the pedigree and an element of luck when buying young stock. At the moment there seems to be too many foals/yearlings fetching rdiiculously high prices, many of which will never recoup the costs, implying (to me) that some people know what they are doing and some don't (or at least to the same extent) It would be very intetesting to know who is picking the winners and losers on behalf of potential owners and also which trainers develop their young horses to reach their full potential. The breeding success rate of breeders, big and small, would also be interesting. I know some breeders have a very well planned breeding program over a very long period. We all know it's not as simple as putting a good mare to a champion sire, that being potentially a very expensive mistake
