Best Horse Not to Win the Derby
 

So the Blood-Horse has this interactive poll ranking the best horses to not win the Derby and the public results are Curlin at 3rd best?! How many times did Jess Jackson take this poll? :zz:

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...033&source=rss

Curlin ahead of Easy Goer, Bold Ruler, Nashua, and even Holy Bull is pretty sad. However, still not as sad as some of the comments I happend upon when I stumbled into the Nicanor blog...

A sampling ....

Can we please send Freddy over there....

Obviously.

Round Table not even on the list? Pretty bogus.

Oh lordy! That is why I have not ventured over there. gag me I did see a post from a poster by the name "Not my Brother" and it said "Would you people please get off my back, if I was trained by Bobby Frankel I would never run from all the weight of all of yalls expectations"!!!! :D

i made the mistake of reading part of that blog one time. that was enough.

curlin #3. lol

I ranked it:
1. Native Dancer
2. Alydar
3. Bold Ruler
4. Easy Goer
5. Holy Bull
6. Nashua
7. Afleet Alex
8. Point Given
9. Curlin
10. Sham


Curlin as #3. LOL :zz:

gotta divide this up into early earth and recent earth...

Round Table.
How many saw the horse run?


Point Given.
The others are fading with my memory
and handicapping skills.

i just watched a couple replays of round table the other day. i don't think years from now anyone would tune into a show replaying curlin or point given...yet somehow, i think people would still watch round table and bold ruler, or secretariat and sham, affirmed and alydar.

No Skippy Phil?

they give those ten horses in the poll posted above...

Give me an hour and I can come up with 100 better than Curlin. How about Forego ( 4th to Secretariat )? Skip Away for sure. Bet Twice?

What exactly did Afleet Alex do to show he was better than Curlin?

just 100?

i don't think alex, curlin or point given belong anywhere near a poll including native dancer, nashua or alydar.

Honest Pleasure.

Curlin ran above a 115 BSF once in his career.
Easy Goer did it nine times.
Ranking Curlin above Easy Goer is completely ridiculous.

All this poll really shows is the average person weighing in on horse racing on the internet has no sense of history ( I'm being nice ).

But, hey, we already knew that.....we post on and read DT.

i'd put about half of the 1985 and 87 fields over some of these.

indian charlie too, of course!

Go back and include 1957. Iron Leige beat Bold Ruler, Gallant Man and Round Table. This thanks to Bill Shoemaker's error at the 1/16th pole.

As BTW said it's a lack of perspective and study of history. Basically, BH ran a popularity contest and ...shock of shocks... the most popular horse wins!

I never saw Round Table, but I do think progeny enters into the evaluation for a beaten Kentucky Derby horse's legacy.

He was a brother to Secretariat.


Round Table was surely active, but how successful was he as a stallion?


With similar glasses, my $$ on the best to have not won a Derby would definitely have Nashua in my exotic box wager.

(is it OK with the board administration and censors to type "exotic box" here?.....:D )

Not a bro to Secretariat but Round Table's sire Princequillo was Sec's broodmare sire.

I never saw him run either but I have studied him using various histories, including DRF's Champions which is a wonderful compilation. Round Table was an exceptional racer and a very good sire. He was an outstanding broodmare sire.

Round Table won 43 of 66 starts on the east and west coasts. He won major races on dirt and turf. He was a stakes winning 2yo in 1956 and was second in his final career start, the JCGC at 2 miles in late 1959, to Sword Dancer. At 3 he raced 22 times with 15 wins! One of those wins was the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 13th against his elders. In fact, his first start after his third in the Derby (in front of Bold Ruler) was a close2nd in the Californian against older.

He won from 4 to 13 furlongs and carried weight. He sired 83 stakes winners in an era when 30 or so mares was a full book.

Thanks, it's nice to know someone is reading a Californian's posts at 1:00AM Eastern Time....:)


I have a signed and numbered portrait (I love) of Secretariat to my left in this room, noting Princequillo in his immediate lineage. I erroneously jumped to the "brother" conclusion upon also noting Princequillo with Round Table and his lineage.

Thanks for the good catch.


And, sincere thanks for the stats on Round Table.


Very impressive.

Cigar belongs somewhere in the top 10.

It is limited to horses who ran in the Derby.Otherwise Man O War would top the list and Native Dancer,Alydar,Bold Ruler and Easy Goer would be the only horses considered on the current list.

OOPS my bad.

Coaltown should be in the top five.

How about Damascus? No way he's not near the top of that list.

Good one. More evidence that the list is flawed.

best 3 yr old in 1988 was risen star finish 4th in derby. i believe a better ride by eddie d. and his chance of winning the derby and triple crown.

he was also an incredibly sound racehorse, almost no breaks in his racing career. most consider him the best turf horse ever produced in the america. and he was fantastic on dirt as well.

problem is, they wanted to include modern horses on the list, so it's already a flawed poll.

You could put a blanket over the last 4 they chose. I certainly would have used Forego and Skip Away in the top 10.

Extra cup of coffee for the 3 hr drive home from Aqueduct had me up all night.

Best Pal had a pretty good career after the Triple Crown was over. He should be up there.

I could say Easy Goer and Skip Away

Arts and Letters wasn't mentioned either.

neither was dancer's image.