richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 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 world
> 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.
>

FYI on the topic of the GOAT, or at least the greatest single season campaign -- Saratoga Live ran an interesting piece on Dr. Fager a couple weeks ago (8/3/18) about a gravel-voiced longtime Dodgers peanut vendor named Richard Aller who’s been on a lifelong crusade to make the case that Dr. Fager's 1968 campaign was the greatest in the history of the sport.

Aller, who was somewhat of a Don Rickles-esque insult comic, was such a beloved fixture amongst the Dodger faithful that after once being fired for “misappropriation of peanuts” when he attempted to resell two bags of pilfered salted nuts he had received from a fellow vendor’s lunch allotment, that the fans put together a petition along with his fellow vendors and successfully lobbied for his reinstatement.

Like many of us, Aller fell in love with racing after his Dad took him to the track when he was a kid. He became a huge fan of Dr. Fager, and after John Nerud was made aware of his lifelong obsession with the horse, the two started up what became a 25 year friendship. Every year up to 2013, Aller and Charles Fager (the doctor the horse was named after who saved Nerud’s life) went to Nerud’s birthday, up until his 100th birthday.

Says Aller of Dr. Fager:

[i]“The fastest horse of all-time. Able to accelerate quarter-mile splits faster than any horse that ever raced. He could accelerate a quarter-mile split seven lengths faster than Secretariat.

The only horse ever to be Horse of the Year, Handicap Horse of the Year, Sprinter of the Year, and Grass Horse of the Year. Beating two Horses of the Year. Carrying no less than 130. As much as 139. Got faster as he carried more weight, defying the laws of physics.

He could sprint, he could come home, he could come around horses. He did it all. But he didn’t do it in the Triple Crown, so he’ll never get his just due.

I didn’t know quite what he was in 1968. I began to get enraged at the distortions that were made. Let me historically define that. Dr. Fager ran in 1968. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. Vietnam war. Vietnam war protests…Race riots all over the country. A riot at the Democratic National Convention. A protest at the Olympics in Mexico City. The most tumultuous year in 20th century history and he was not on national television. Secretariat ran in 1973. The Triple Crown was on national television. Horse racing was consumed by television. And so Secretariat became visibly a shrine.

Dr. Fager got tested every way imaginable. It didn’t matter anywhere, any place, any time, any conditions, any weight, quality of competition, Dr. Fager’s there every time.

And by the way, I don’t say that Dr. Fager was the greatest horse of all time. All I said was one season.”
[/i]
As Aller also notes, his lone defeat in 1968 was at the hands of Damascus, a race in which he carried 135lbs and was forced to contend with Damascus’s rabbit Hedevar.

[b]Dr. Fager’s 1968 Season[/b]
7 wins in 8 starts
Never carried less than 130lbs
Horse of the Year
Champion Handicap Horse
Outstanding Sprinter
Co-Champion Turf Horse

[b]Stakes Wins[/b]
Roseben Stakes
Californian Stakes
Suburban Handicap
Whitney Stakes
Washington Park Handicap (1M in 132:1, a new world record carrying 134lbs, winning by 10 under no urging)
United Nations Handicap
Vosburgh


Unfortunately Dr. Fager was just a little before my time so I can't really judge for myself off personal experience, but my Dad always said he was the greatest horse he’d ever seen, period.