Hands down Rags to Riches for me. I know people say that Curlin was tired from the first two legs but still, he was Curlin. What made it even more impressive to me in retrospect is that Curlin went on to win the JCGC and BC Classic and be named HOY. Not only did Rags beat him but she beat him in a battle. No getting out front and lasting. No catching horses that tired from the pace. The two of them hooked up and she outran him. In terms of quality of competition faced, I'd take this race over all three of Rachel's against the boys. Zenyatta's was good but it wasn't great to me. Even though we know grass horses tend to run well on synthetics, it's not a given that all do and Rip Van Winkle didn't. That left a pretty average group of horses. Twice Over was no great thing. Gio Ponti, for all that he's done, has never won a race that wasn't on grass. Summer Bird was not a bad horse but he was also realistically probably no better than the 5th or 6th best 3yo (if all were healthy) and he was also not on his preferred surface.

1-Rags
2-Rachel's Preakness
3-Rachel's Haskell
4-Zenyatta
5-Rachel's Woodward

PS-I'd take Winning Colors' Derby and Preakness over all of them.

Welcome back Kingie! :)

Gracias. And thank you to Steve for letting me back.

You should actually thank Byk for making sure you weren't around for the six months prior to Zenyatta losing in the BCC.

What are you talking about? She didn't lose. How could she have lost if she was just named HOY? That doesn't make any sense.

I stand corrected.

You are just real lucky you weren't subjected to the likes of Smooth Operator and CSC1985 prior to her astonishing second place win in the BCC.

You'd have popped your aorta.

You can shoot holes in all of them if you want, but I think I'd take Rachel's Haskell because she beat the Belmont/Travers winner, and it was such a dominating and fast performance. Was it aided by the track?

Rags beating Curlin is great, agree. For her to hold that monster off was really something.

Zenyatta's was great, but it is just so difficult to translate everyone's form to that surface. The best names in the race were turf and dirt horses. Gio Ponti was the turf champ, Rip was a turf horse, Summer Bird was the 3yo champ for his dirt effort.

Rachel's Woodward was amazing considering the fractions she faced and the way she put away challenge after challenge. Holding on by a diminishing head vs Macho Again doesn't come close to telling the story.

That race was her most impressive to me. Both the closers were at the top of their game at the time and she had every reason to lose that race.

Awww!!!:p
It was a really fun day, hopefully we'll do it again!!!

Gallorette over Stymie in the 1946 Brooklyn Handicap, then winning the 1948 Carter AND Whitney as a 6YO mare. Twilght Tear over Pensive in the 1944 Pimlico Special. Busher over multi-older horse of the year winner Armed in the 1945 Washington Park Handicap.

i'll take rachels 3 wins vs males vs the other horses 1 total. most 3 yo colts don't get that kind of schedule, let alone win those three. her season was a treat.