Is Tony Done?

[Brown jug]

congrats blackfin and good luck
as always  tony bought some quality ones at lexington
24 plus a few homebreds from some of the usual owners will likely total  half as many as normal, might be a good thing
hopefully he can lose those caviart horses, also would be a good thing
just curious why you think 2026 will be a good year, what will cause the improvement versus the last 3 progressively worse years

[Blackfin32]

Everyone know Tony Alagna is extremely dedicated  24/7 and if you look at his selections, they reflect a lifetime of
knowledge.   That does not guarantee success but he has again selected yearlings with tremendous potential and will
train them to be the best they can be.  You can't ask anything more from either him or the yearling.

[AgentQ]

You're drinking the kool-aid brother. And good for you but it comes with a price. Ask Robby Pryde or one of the many Myron Bell victims. Tony buys all the best pedigree from all the Brittany families and pays dearly for them, in the process helping George and Myron, and loses on 99% of them. He needs to do a better job of identifying the mid range horses for 30-60K and produce a 1M winner or two. Casie, Brown, Elliot, and many others do it every year. And he needs to streamline his interests and get away from running training centres and buying farms and just do what his very good at: training horses, most notably babies. I will add he's an extremely good guy and losing his mother had to be extremely difficult as they were very close. I hope he makes the changes I noted and wish him nothing but good fortune.

[Blackfin32]

Thank you for your nice comments.  Everyone knows how hard it is with this intense competition.  I would not comment on
others you mentioned and go by my life experience and my research before I started.  He needs to have success with his new yearlings and if you look at his selections, you can see how it is possible.   I started a thread to select 5 horses for $250,000
from the sales and see how they do.  It's not easy.  At the end of the year I will disclose my actual 5. 

[Grandstand Handicapper]

Remember, part of this, specifically the part having to do with Myron's horses, has less to do with Tony, and more to do with Myron. Myron has been a cockroach in this business for his entire life. If it wasn't for George Segal, Myron would probably still be selling racing forms out in Las Vegas. Myron always looks out for Myron, and obviously it's at other people's expense. So, first, Myron breeds horses (and I don't know what % he actually owns of them), and sells interests in them at prices that Myron sets-----which IMO are grossly inflated. They are partnership horses that Myron then "manages" and if or what he charges for that, I have no idea. Now, I don't know if the people who buy into those horses ask Tony for his opinion before they do, but if they do, that's an inherent conflict of interest. Two, and I can't verify he did in fact do this, but I believe Myron has: a) also put horses through the ring, either bought them back and sold interests in them, and/or, b) Tony bought them for other owners, and Myron retained/bought back into the horse (at the sale price), and then sold interests in that piece he retained/bought back into. Simply another money-making scheme.

Yes, Tony has bought Brittany horses. If a trainer ends up with "overly inflated" priced horses, owners are going to lose money. Period. Buy a colt for $100,000 earn $300k through his 2yo and 3yo year, sell him, and you make money. Arguably, LOL. Buy that same colt for $300,000, and obviously the results change. Regardless, this didn't happen with every horse. As I said, Tony has been on a bad run. His clientele is getting older, downsizing, perhaps leaving the business for the most part, some are shifting more to other trainers perhaps, etc. But this isn't the blame game. 

[Brown jug]

i hope he comes back and has a decent year in 2026
 the sport needs more than one trainer( burke) winning all the races
i hope ryder, daley, takter, pelling ,harris also have good seasons
its good for the sport

also not making excuses for tony as the numbers the last few years speak for themselves but he did get a lot of tds in the first crop and a lot of caviart average homebreds

[AgentQ]

Remember, part of this, specifically the part having to do with Myron's horses, has less to do with Tony, and more to do with Myron. Myron has been a cockroach in this business for his entire life. If it wasn't for George Segal, Myron would probably still be selling racing forms out in Las Vegas. Myron always looks out for Myron, and obviously it's at other people's expense. So, first, Myron breeds horses (and I don't know what % he actually owns of them), and sells interests in them at prices that Myron sets-----which IMO are grossly inflated. They are partnership horses that Myron then "manages" and if or what he charges for that, I have no idea. Now, I don't know if the people who buy into those horses ask Tony for his opinion before they do, but if they do, that's an inherent conflict of interest. Two, and I can't verify he did in fact do this, but I believe Myron has: a) also put horses through the ring, either bought them back and sold interests in them, and/or, b) Tony bought them for other owners, and Myron retained/bought back into the horse (at the sale price), and then sold interests in that piece he retained/bought back into. Simply another money-making scheme.

Yes, Tony has bought Brittany horses. If a trainer ends up with "overly inflated" priced horses, owners are going to lose money. Period. Buy a colt for $100,000 earn $300k through his 2yo and 3yo year, sell him, and you make money. Arguably, LOL. Buy that same colt for $300,000, and obviously the results change. Regardless, this didn't happen with every horse. As I said, Tony has been on a bad run. His clientele is getting older, downsizing, perhaps leaving the business for the most part, some are shifting more to other trainers perhaps, etc. But this isn't the blame game.

Myron got banned from Harrisburg for the exact thing you mentioned. He has always been a conduit for george to get outrageous prices for his yearlings. And as you've articulated, he always used others money to be involved. Those well to do saps that believed his nonsense got crushed for millions and I don't feel one bit sorry for them. Tony made his bed and at the end of the day benefitted tremendously because his relationship with Myron. All good things come to an end.

[Grandstand Handicapper]

I don't know that Myron got banned from Harrisburg, but I'll take your word for it. Being that the arena is owned by the State, and that the SHSC owns and operates the sale, I am not sure if they can "ban" someone, but again, I'll take your word for it. Myron was more a conduit, shill, promoter, etc., for Tony than he was for George. George has a long history in the sport, is well respected, and had a very high-quality, excellent broodmare band. The Brittany yearlings always sold well, without promotion from anyone, and they were purchased by leading owners, trainers, etc., and Brittany made every effort to have that happen. I was never a fan of being a buyer from them because I felt you couldn't compete against their "preferred" clients. Plus, by they culled and kept. Back in the early days, by the time the ones that were being offered got to the sale, Gene Riegle, Bob McIntosh, Bruce Nickells, Guida, Continental, Per Eriksson, etc., had already been through them and knew everything there was to know, LOL. In more modern times and in many recent years, it's Trevor Ritchie, who consults to George, whatever trainers George may be using, and yes, Tony was one of them, and there are absolutely still "preferred" clients of course.

I agree, Tony made his bed by dealing with Myron, and while he benefitted from it, he will also bear the consequences of it.

[AgentQ]

Trust me he's banned from the sale. And although George had a great band and spent a ton to get it, you're terribly naive to think he didn't have Myron directed his group of pigeons to be on his yearling. And some did slip through cracks, just ask Casie. As for Trevor, another over rated driver with brand recognition that gets crushed five ten years running. Why guys that have money just don't ring up guys like Ryder, Elliot, Moore, Brown and a select few others that have demonstrated that they have a keen eye for what a good horse ought to look like. Sure they get it wrong but they swing a lot in the 25-60K range and hit killers.

[Grandstand Handicapper]

You are giving Myron far too much credit and power. Many people talk to Myron. Less tolerate him. Even far less than that do business with him. That's why he ended up on George's payroll. Yes, Myron had a group of stooges, and those were the ones who either bought/sent horses to Tony, and/or bought those partnership horses. Small group. Trevor's driving and resume as a driver has zero to do with this. The fact is he's paid by George to assess and advise on the Brittany yearlings, and that's all I was saying. He's got the inside line on the crop. As a horseman, judge of yearlings, horseflesh, whatever, you may think zero of him, but, obviously George doesn't.

As far as owners and how they pick trainers, what they do, sure, plenty of them do. I guess many others simply don't know, listen to others, agents, advisors or whatever you want to call them. In some cases it's the blind leading the blind, LOL. The old joke is very smart people come into this business, and they check their brains at the stable gate/farm entrance, LOL. I've been a fan of Moore for a long time. He has always taken on a limited # of horses every year, and never wanted to bigger than he was comfortable with. Rather than get bigger, he had the opportunity to buy better quality horses. Regardless, he's done exceptionally well and has a great track record. Now he's retiring so it doesn't matter, LOL. Personally, I don't think there's a shortage of very good trainers out there, but it's certainly not a very long list. LOL.

[Grandstand Handicapper]

BTW, heard through the grapevine-----no, certainly not here, LOL-----there is a potential buyer/deal for the farm. Good step in the right direction for Tony.

[Brown jug]

fallout winning would sting especially for past owners
horse underachieves all year and makes almost as much money in this start as he made all year
sure they got $500k for him which is great but maybe not given what he should have earned in 2025 and what he will earn in 2026