| King Glorious |
11-02-2007 02:27 PM |
Perspective is a good word here. Take the New York Yankees, for example. There are 30 teams in the major leagues and only eight of them make the playoffs. I believe it's been 12 consecutive seasons that the Yankees have been one of those eight. They've won four championships in that span. However, they've not won the championship since 2000 and haven't even been to the World Series since 2003. Now, I'm sure that the fans of the Pirates, Brewers, Royals, Devil Rays, Rangers, Mariners, etc., would LOVE to trade places with the Yankees. These teams can't even get into the playoffs. The Yankees get there every year and fire their manager because they have just had another disappointing season. There are different expectations for different people. There is a term that goes well here; to whom much is given, much is expected. In the case of Pletcher, there is no doubt that he expects more. He's given a much better hand to start than 99% of his competition. I know that last year, he didn't win any races but his stable came away with over $2 million in earnings and he won another national earnings title and broke the record. May have earned the Eclipse last year too but I don't remember. He himself admitted though that it was a disappointing day for him in the BC last year. I suppose that because he actually won one of the races this year, it was better for him but he still didn't reach the expectations that were set for him, either by the public or by himself. To see those arguing on his behalf that he had a successful day is kind of funny when if u ask him, he'd tell u he is disappointed.
As for Nobiz, let's understand something. I don't think that anyone has called him any kind of world beater. I was never a fan of his and still won't say that I am. But he's a horse that was among the best of his generation as a 2yo and throughout the first half of his 3yo season. This was on the dirt. He won a grade one and won or placed in several other graded races. Sure, he's not at the level of Curlin, Street Sense, Hard Spun and maybe Any Given Saturday. But after those four, there is not another 3yo that I'd take over him. Then he switched to grass and ran some very big races. He didn't win the Mile but he lost by only about two lengths to Kip Deville and Excellent Art and both of those horses are world class runners. There is absolutely no shame in that. What I think that some people fail to realize is that today's runners just aren't as good as they have been in the past decades. The top dirt Beyer in a route this year was 119, reached by two horses. We've gotten used to seeing Candy Ride go 124, Pleasantly Perfect reach the 120 mark a few times. Ghostzapper made 120+ seem routine. The list includes several others. So what we have to realize is that the bar is being lowered each year. If none of these top 3yo's come back next year, we could see an even more pathetic group of older horses, where the winners of races like the SA Hcp, JCGC, Woodward, etc, can barely reach the 110 level. But there is something to remember. Each year, we are going to have a group of horses. Either it's going to be a good group or it's going to be a bad one. Either way, there will be a best of that group. I think that anyone that can't recognize that Nobiz is among the best of his group decided that a long time ago and doesn't want to admit they are wrong.
|
