Re: Class of 2017 (868 Views)
Posted by:
richiebee (IP Logged)
Date: August 14, 2018 06:49AM
Fairmount:
Appreciate your dogged pursuit of the "Great White". Quint would be proud, and
here's to swimmin' with bow legged women.
I'll pick and choose the points to address, and you know quite well that I feel
comfortable arguing both sides of an issue without any emotional attachment,
except for one statement. You called Arrogate, American Pharaoh and
Justify "Three of the greatest horses of all time." Even given the fact that it
is rather impossible to compare human and equine athletes from different
generations, I suggest you take some time during your Saratoga sojourn to visit
the National Racing Hall of Fame. I will concede that Arrogate is right up
there with Ghostzapper among the best of this century. I will step out on a
limb and opine that Secretariat (champion on two surfaces, set [i]world[/i]
records at 12 furlongs turf and dirt; pretty sure he set stake records in all 3
legs of Triple Crown); Spectacular Bid (his 4YO campaign possibly the greatest
in American racing history; carried weight and set track records at 7f and 10f)
and Forego (8 Eclipse Awards, 34 wins from 57 lifetime starts, all accomplished
on a scary bad set of wheels) would all have to be listed above the 3 Bafferts
on any GOAT list I would compose.
That's when a sport was a sport. I can't hold it against Secretariat,
Spectacular Bid and Forego that they did not have a "Facebook" page while they
were racing.
With regards to Pletcher and his precocious 2YO sprinters at the Spa, let's
look at the performance of his 3YOs in recent years. A couple of Belmont wins
and a near miss. Yes "only" two Derby wins since 2010. His success in the preps
and disappointments in the Derby have been well documented. In 2018 Pletcher
trainees won the La Derby, Wood, Florida Derby and Arkansas Derby. What did the
TAP trained winners of these four races have in common other than not having
much impact in the Triple Crown races? None of them started at the Spa as a
2YO. Audible was the first to make it to the races, beginning his career on
September 27. So while it is fun (I guess?) to continue the "Magician" theme,
is it possible that TAP, after burning through a lot of Competitive Edges,
decided that preparing 2YOs for dominant wins at 5 furlongs at the Spa was
counterproductive if the goal was to develop a classic winner?
The Del Mar stats are good, even if they only cover a two year period. But what
if Baffert comes back to Del Mar in 2019 as a 26% trainer? Does that mean that
the pachyderm is no longer in the room?