Thoroughbred Legends Fund

Let's see. If you had an extra $1 million laying around, would you be willing to invest it in the past performances of three legendary thoroughbred trainers? That is what the brains behind the Thoroughbred Legends Racing Fund are counting on.

The concept is actually interesting. Nick Zito, Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert are joining forces to train yearlings and two-year olds in training that they hand pick for the members of the group willing to invest $3 million over three years. Granted these trainers represent the most winning trio in racing history (collectively they have trained the winners of twenty six American classic races since 1980), and they are, no doubt, extremely good at what they do, but I'm still not sure I would spend my $1 million on horses.

But then again, who am I to judge how other people invest their funds? Let's put it this way: I'd certainly rather invest in Zito, Lukas and Baffert than in Dutrow.

On one level, the move is designed to attract new blood into the sport and on another it is designed to keep the old blood from bowing out. Yearling prices continue to climb and sometimes it seems like the only people who are buying horses these days are the oil rich sheiks. Zito, Lukas and Baffert, who will continue to train for their individual private clients, are not running operations like they used to when Lucas had horses and assistants seemingly in every barn at every track around the country.

At the same time, these guys should be pretty well-off financially, so its hard to believe they are hurting but they probably are. Just like every other business, on one level it's all about sales and new customers and they need both to keep their hands in the game.

The complicated issue for me would be this concept of collective training. Apparently these trainers have all moved past their individual egos and are willing to work together, but they each have very different styles of training horses. If I were to sign up, would I have the option of saying I wanted Zito to train my share of the horse rather than Lucas, or is it like the medical practice where you get the doctor on call?

There is also no mention of the group's collective racing philosophy. Is the objective here to win with two and three year olds and rush them to the stud barn or is it to be sporting and continue to let them race a four and five year olds? What about use of drugs? Will this venture, in the end, be any different than any other racing partnership with regard to influencing the sport of racing?

Which it could and I guess that is what bugs me. These three guys could have made a huge difference in how the industry conducts its business and I'm afraid they are caving in to the power of the dollar.

Only time will tell.