Re: Invasor? (452 Views)
Posted by:
richiebee (IP Logged)
Date: July 01, 2007 03:58PM
This debate wont go away, so I cant go away.
1) You can call Mineshaft, Skip Away, Ghostzapper,Invasor,the Professor and
all the rest "Great", as long as you call Fager/Secretariat/Slew/Bid/Forego "Immortal".
Its been 30 years since the "Decade of Champions". If people are still talking
about racing in 30 years, I dont think they will be talking about "Shaft",
"Skip","Zapper" and Invasor.
Notes: (a) Of the "Great" 4 above, I dock some points from the Zapper, who did
most of his "Great" work over one strip: Belmont;
(b) Skippy was campaigned like one of the bluebooded owned runners of the
Decade of Champions. His owners/trainer, Sonny and Caroline Hine, kept him
running out of love and pride. Skippy beat Cigar, who somehow is not usually
mentioned on these "Great" lists. I dont know what the TG stallion index says,
but the get of Skippy has been good to me especially on turf and off going;
will be interested to see synthetic numbers on his runners.
(c) If Invasor was not injured, he would have run no more than four more races
in his career. (There would have been the possibility that Jerkens could have
beat him at 15/1 in the Suburban, no?). If he repeated in the BC Classic, it
could be said that he put together two consecutive years which were borderline
Immortal.
(d) Fkach, I do not understand why you would put that much emphasis
on "precocity", brilliance as a 2YO. I guess as careers get shorter it will
become ever more important though.
(e) Unfortunately, the Triple Crown and especially the Derby will be accorded
too much weight in judging the historical ranking of runners.The Triple Crown
is an aberration as far as racing goes. Many Triple Crown runners will never
compete in a 20 horse field ever again after the Derby. Many Triple Crown
runners will never be tried at 10 or 12 furlongs ever again. Many Triple Crown
runners will not be weighted at 126 ever again in their careers. The 3 race in 5
week series is more a question of endurance than racing brilliance. The
emphasis on the Derby in specific and the Triple Crown has been one of the
culprits in early equine retirement.
(f) The closest thing I may have seen to "Immortality" since the turn of the
Century may be Ouija Board.