Who’s comparable as of late? Crushed grade 1 sprints, BC champ at middle distance, and dominated the world’s richest route for an encore. Fired every single time, regardless of track, conditions, competition, all in all a great career. For my money a (much) more impressive career than going undefeated for a few months in the spring, though “history” will remember it differently I’m sure.

I still can’t help but think if Firing Line changes leads in the KY or Bravazo finds his best a stride sooner in MD the last two triple crowns don’t happen. I know you can’t do that, and you can’t do any better than winning every time you were loaded. But I’d like to see more than a 3-6 month win streak to be considered an all time great. Especially now going the way of less and less starts at the highest levels of the sport.

Like, I used to despise Tommy Brady and the Patriots. But now after 18 years of sustained excellence I tip my cap and actually hope they get another one. Same as Jordan and the Bulls of the 90’s. There’s something to be said for prolonged greatness. The longer you do it, the more impressive in my book, and unfortunately you just don’t and won’t get that in racing ever again for the obvious reasons.

Money talks, but as a fan you certainly wish you could see the battles settled on the track as 4 & 5 year olds. Hell even the second half of the 3 year old campaign in Justified’s case. Think about the hype train and the potential money that would follow into the pools if you had super star rivalries that lasted for a couple years as opposed to a couple months? I really do think the difference would be dramatic. That’s the stark difference of today as opposed to the glory days of decades past.