Timely Writer

Have been exploring this topic with the 'Horse That Time Forgot' segments.. Am going to make it a more regular and formal feature. Amazing how many near-greats there have been that aren't more 'well recalled'.

A hard-to-define topic. Some horses captivate us, others not so much. How do you describe and define underrated? Underappreciated? Underexposed? I loved Precious Passion. Was he great or underrated, or did I love watching him run as fast as he could as long as he could? You could argue what gave him a high profile overrated his actual results on track. I thought Dehere was a monster when he was running. He never ran super fast. He beat a meh champagne field and lost at 3/5 in BC, but for me, he was great—just a hard topic to define.
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Tiznow seemed to be a pretty decent horse and I think he might still be the only 2 time Breeder's Cup Classic winner.

I agree, and I personally think of it more as underappreciated. Like if you took his record and hid his name and put it up against a similar but better-known horse you'd be surprised when the underappreciated horse's name was revealed.

It’s not really underrated but I always wonder where Easy Goer or Sunday Silence would rank if the other didn’t exist? Especially Easy Goer because he was an East Coast runner and he won the more prestigious races. With what his resume would have looked like as a TC winner along with the BC Classic, Travers, Wood, and the other races, I have a feeling he would be ranked top five.

I know there are many more you could say similar things about, especially horses that won the Derby/Preakness and lost the Belmont. Winning a TC would raise any horse’s profile. Imagine how much higher Smarty Jones would be. Real Quiet was so close to immortality. Risen Star would be looked at much more favorably.

Of course, they could have also simply run full campaigns as older horses & ranked up there alongside Spectacular Bid, Swaps, Alysheba, or Riva Ridge. Even Silver Charm is rated pretty highly.

How about a blast from the past

Bold N Determined

Underrated is an understatement

Wow, thanks for that history lesson!

I love how she never lost a stakes after an Allowance race 'prep.'

Good one; in a similar vein:

GOODBYE HALO

BANSHEE BREEZE

BEAUTIFUL PLEASURE - a bit inconsistent but obviously top class

LIFE'S MAGIC - wonder how her record would look if she focused on her division; 8 of 32 starts were against top class males