You're absolutely right, good post. I would also add though that Smarty Jones' last two furlongs would have been stronger had he not had so much early pressure.

That I don't doubt.

Curlin
Street Sense
Barbaro
Barnardini
Afleet Alex
Lost in the Fog
Smarty Jones
Point Given
Tiznow
Xtra Heat
Silver Charm
Skip Away
Thunder Gulch
Holy Bull
AP Indy
Hansel
Go For Wand
Unbridled
Easy Goer
Sunday Silence
Forty Niner
Risen Star
Bet Twice
Alysheba
Java Gold

Reverse chronological. didn't look at rest of thread so probably forgot about some. remembered these.

good list

they dont run grade 1's in canada?

Agree, that is probably my list as well give or take one or two. Nice job.

The Queens Plate is a CDN bred restricted race, ungraded.

Trust me, I'd include Awesome Again if I could- but his career was at 4.

holy cow, i never realized that!

still, he was better as a 3yo than a whole lot of the ones named in this thread. didnt he win the queen's plate in his 2nd or 3rd start?

If nothing else, anyone that includes Lost in the Fog and NOT Housebuster, needs, at the very least, a course in recent racing history. Housebuster ran numberous races, as a 3YO, that dwarfed anything Lost in the Fog ever did.

I was a little shocked to see that I was the only one to include Housebuster in the top 25.

I would say many of these people know nothing about him. I just looked a couple of his races up.....he got a 113 Beyer fig when he won the King's Bishop ( Lost in the Fog.....105 ) and lost a photo to Criminal Type in the Met Mile, beating Easy Goer, and got a 117 Beyer.

housebuster was amazing.....

isn't it funny tho how some horses are remembered for things they didn't do (such as anyone listing awesome again for his 3 yo career) and then others who accomplished some tremendous things get no press at all?

They should watch this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQzeEFPRR2E

I must say that I'm very surprised to see Xtra Heat make any list. Personally, I don't even know if I'd rank her as one of the top three 3yo filly sprinters of the period. If you like Xtra Heat, what did you think about Very Subtle or Safely Kept? Very Subtle is one underrated filly. She won the BC (beating Groovy) and also went back east and won the Test and won the Fantasy Stakes (via DQ) in Arkansas. Both of those fillies won the premiere 3yo filly sprint race.

I could be mistaken but didn't Don Brumfield ride Housebuster in his earlier races?

How can anyone knock LITF campaign. He raced at 7 different tracks, took on all comers, and never ran a sub 105 figure, less his Sunshine Million when he won by 5 while never being asked to run (102). Its just hard to imagine this horse isnt one of the best of his generation, if not all time. To not have him on a list as a 3yo when he dominated the division, and won 8 of 9, only losing after a tumor crippled him is criminal. His best was never realized, his good days were better than some of the best horses BEST days.

Its speculation but I would imagine his 2yo campaign was the only year he raced with no cancer. As a 2yo he ran a 103, 109, 102, thats significant.

He only got a 118 Beyer fig that day. Citidancer was undefeated going into the Jerome I believe.

But, Lost in the Fog was a better horse. Give me a break.

Unforunately, he's most widely known for this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp6M8ijJgCI

I myself was just out of college and the prior 4 years are/were/and forever will be blurred at best. I don't remember much at all about the horses from '87-'91, but unfortunately, I, like most people, do remember this vividly.

Wow, someone actually agrees with me on something! It's a miracle!

It's unfortunate he won the majority of his races on the NoCal circuit. He'll always be knocked for that.

i find it amazing that some people can only judge ability by looking at a resume only.

anyone with half an eye could see awesome again was a top colt.

For being injured?

I'll assume it was his BC as a 4YO.....and not watch. I still remember poor Jimmy Croll being interviewed leading the horse back after the race. He was such a wonderful horse that it was especially sad for things to end that way for him.

I'm actually glad I brought him up, as probably no horse in recent history properly exposes Lost in the Fog more fairly than Housebuster. While Lost in the Fog was a very nice horse, and story, and he certainly ran decently on a very consistent basis, he was nowhere close to the talent that Housebuster was....or what people with no perspective think he was. His tragic end does not change what he was on the racetrack.

What I am saying is that more people are aware of HOUSEBUSTER because of what happened in the '91 Sprint. Only the most knowledgeable are aware of his actual accomplishments.

Those were two very good races. I don't think it's fair to say that Housebuster ran several races as a 3yo that DWARFED anything Fog ever did. You point out the 113 and 117 figures. Fog did earn a 116 and a 114. That's right there with Housebuster. I also give Fog extra credit for the ambitious traveling schedule he was on. I've heard you talk about the effects of constantly shipping and Fog criss-crossed the country 13 times that year and still nearly held up to the end. I'd also like to see what kind of weight assignments Housebuster had in those races and how much he was giving to his competition.

Well those people need new glasses if they couldn't see the reason why he finished badly.

This is simply not true at all. Fog won 11 career races:

Northern CA-3
Arizona-1
South FL-3
Kentucky-1
NY-3

Want to think of an underrated sprinter, think of Reraise.

Pants you are very defensive regarding HOUSEBUSTER. I'm not knocking the horse at all. I was supporting Andy's point actually. He was an incredible talent.

At 3: Jerome H. -G1, Withers S. -G2, Sheridan S. -G3, Hutcheson S. -G3, Lafayette S. -G3, Derby Trial S. -G3, King's Bishop S. -G3, Spectacular Bid S., Swale S. -G3; 2nd Metropolitan H. -G1

It would have been great to see a healthy LITF on into his 4yo year. I think he would have hushed some of the critics. All we can do is speculate how good he was, or wasnt, or how much his disease hampered his running.

I should've looked up his wins. I just remember him winning in NoCal and that stands out more to me than the others. But really Arizona should stick out like a sore thumb. I imagine if he was still running today he would've had wins in Washington and New Mexico.

Did LITF ever defeat another G1 winner?

It's a stigma that's hard to overcome. I consider El Gato Malo a Northern Cali horse even though two of his three races have been in Southern Cali. It's just interesting that a horse that won more races at Gulfstream, Churchill, Belmont, and Saratoga than in Northern Cali is still disparaged as only a Northern Cali horse.

Maybe.....and it is unfortunate. However, all we really have to go on in his 3YO year is that when he finally faced real horses he got completely drowned.

Look, I liked Lost in the Fog, he was a neat horse and I respect that he shipped all over the country and ran in many of the important spots for 3YOs. It wasn't his fault that his competition was weak. But, I think there is a canyon of difference between his actual talent and his perceived talent.

I know I'm going to be laughed off the board, but...
 

can you include a horse who won 3 of 4 races as a 3YO, and only one G1?

These are awesome to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSo-M...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiiKgJiYCDM

Was there a more anticipated return of an older horse than Ghostzapper in recent memory, besides Curlin?

Not that I can recall. That's the only reason he's not on my list although I do believe his talent and accomplishements easily could have earned him a spot.

I left him off of my list too.
He seemed like a pretty good horse, but he never really faced anybody until the BC, and there he was swamped.
I didn't include him for the same reason I don't think that filly out in New Mexico should win HOY.

The big difference is LITF shipped around and went to every big 3yo sprint race there was. It wasn't his fault there was no competition. The NM filly has been kept in state bred company and dodged any real challenges. There's no comparison between them.

Clearly he was better than Pepper's Pride.
I wasn't attempting to compare them in terms of ability.
I was just trying to make the point that I like to see horses actually beat some horse that can run before I would include the animal in a list of this nature.