What were the best stretch duels of all time?
 

In my opinion the top 5 Stretch Duels of all time our:

(in no particular order)
1978 Belmont Stakes
Affirmed and Alydar in a stretch duel for the ages

1989 Preakness Stakes
Easy Goer and Sunday Silence in a stretch duel no one who sees will ever forget

1978 Jockey Club Gold Cup
Seattle Slew battles back against Exceller in one of his finest hours

2007 Belmont Stakes
Rags To Riches and Curlin - what a stretch run!!!

1996 Dubai World Cup
Soul of the Matter and Cigar in a real thriller







What are your Top 5?

Top 3:

1.) Kickin N Screaming and Letherdoherthing

2.) Komodo and Hawk Mountain

3.) Jay's Rule and Lady Quick

alexander hamilton vs aaron burr

A Little Warm vs Miners Reserve



Commentator holding off Saint Liam is tops for me.

Clock Stopper/Ghostzapper...


(Kickin N Screamin v. Letherdoherthing is a profound and inspired selection by DougS though... And of course Battaglia's call sets the heart aflutter...)

Just days before Aaron Burr was to meet Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel, one of Hamilton's cronies called out Burr for another duel, no doubt to save his master's hide.

But Burr put down that goon (with a sword no less), too, before dispatching Hamilton.

Shirreffs pulled the same stunt this year by sending Zardana out to take on Rachel Alexandra at the Fair Grounds, with decidely much better results.

Burr was like the equivalent of a horse that wins a Grade 1 race on the turf over a mile and a half and then only 7 days later winning a Grade 1 on dirt at a flat mile. Both duels took place in Jersey, so to be fair, maybe he couldn't carry his track with him.

This is why Hamilton appears only on the $10 bill while Andrew Jackson (who was a disciple of the ostracized Burr) appears on the $20.

Got milk?

1994 Discovery Handicap

You vs. Carson Hollow
 

You vs. Carson Hollow
2002 Test Stakes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCuJjhBBCSs
this race is so exciting wow
just as good as

This is another1 wow
2003 Breeders Cup Turf
High Chaparral and Johar and Falbrav
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL-wv...eature=related

Le Chateau / Sumwonlovesyou / Humble Janet

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

There are many but the Silver Charm/Captain Bogit/Free House & Touch Gold Preakness is right up there for me.

Honorable mention Flanders/Serena's Song.

Sigh ... oh, that was good! :D

The Affirmed/Alydar races were so exciting.

i'm a hamilton fan, but not jackson....ol' aaron burr was quite the scoundrel. interesting bio's for sure!

hamiltons son died on the same spot of land as his father(well, technically the elder died in his bed, but u know what i mean), also in a duel. must have run in the family...

Jackson probably would have clobbered them all. In his most famous duel (some scumbag wouldn't pay up off on bet on a horse race, no less), he let his rival, who was a better shot, take the first shot on purpose. If he survived the blast he figured he'd be able to take his time with his own shot and have a better chance of sending his rival into early retirement. He was right.

Of course, he took one in the chest just inches from his heart, but apparently he was a good handicapper and won the photo.

Haskin's.....

http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33495

i think he dueled with someone over his wife rachel....or maybe not. my main beef with the hero of new orleans was the defiance of the supreme court when he forced the native americans out of florida. but altho hamilton lost the duel, he was also a war hero. was one hell of a guy, self-made...oh, and would probably have made even bill clinton blush with his exploits.

That's the problem with politics today, not enough duels.



The Street Sense, AGS stretch duel was pretty good.

i especially enjoyed reading about the fight on the house floor-one rep took the other reps cane, and then beat him with it. and people got offended when dick cheney said fucl< off?! lol

and yes, ags/ss was a good one. another was the one between richard sharpe and another british officer in one of bernard cornwell's fine works. that guy can tell a good story.

Hamilton was a phoney war hero. He use to carry George Washington's coat around and was made a General for it. Burr saw more action but was too aggressive and cocky for Washington's taste and so was constantly passed over for promotion. Probably an underlying reason why he had no problem throwing what was left of his career away to duel with Hamilton.

Burr was also responsible for getting Thomas Jefferson the Presidency in 1800. Of course, he nearly stole it for himself in the process, but Hamilton was able to stop it from happening. Yet another score to be settled in the duel.

no, that wasn't it. he kept pestering washington to get into action, and was finally allowed to do that. he took a redoubt along with a few others. i read his bio a few years ago(by ron chernow, excellent book), and remember that..i just can't remember which battle it was. washington wanted to keep hamilton by his side, since he was a valuable aide. hamilton was sharp as a tack.
and from what i read, hamilton was why jefferson, and not burr, was elected president. they kept having ties, and hamilton used some influence to sway the vote jeffersons way. he and jefferson hated each other, but hamilton felt jefferson was the better choice of the two. of course, hamilton had already pretty much killed off the federalist party because of his continuous feuding with john adams. hamilton knew how to do many things, make enemies being one of them! i also recommend a book called' hamilton, jefferson and burr'-it's here somewhere.
burr went broke, damn near got charged with a lot of crimes after going on the run following the famous duel. tried to form his own country at one point. years later, he married a wealthy widow and then spent all her money. she took him to court over it....
that's why it cracks me up when people talk about bitter party politics these days. they need to read their history! just think, george bush and john kerry facing off across a green, seconds and a doctor waiting nearby...


oh, and speaking of war 'heroes'...jefferson running for his life in virginia...lol yeah, stick to writing there, thom!

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


2002 Test


Carson Hallow and You both ran incredible races.

1985 Strub between Precisionist and Greinton, with the semi retarded Gate Dancer try to give his connections a heart attack.

Awesome race.

Loved Haskin's list, very comprehensive. I enjoy this footage of the 2001 BCC because it's got the pre-race, race, post-race coverage of Tiznow and Sakhee with that segment about Cecilia Straub-Rubens that's just gonna make you blubber: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adFhb...eature=related

some top duels of the past decade
 

Listing the top stretch duels of all time would be beyond me, but citing a few incredible duels from the past few years would be readily do-able.

1) agree completely with the 2007 Rags To Riches - Curlin Belmont selection

2) agree as well with the 2004 Fountain of Youth match between Read The Footnotes - Second Of June

3) the 2005 Cornhusker stretch battle between Lord Of The Game - Silver Axe - Mambo Train - Habaneros

4) and with the 2007 Breeders' Cup Distaff (I really miss seeing the name of that race in the BC line-up) bout between Ginger Punch and Hystericalady

5) a tie between Medaglia D'Oro - Candy Ride in the 2003 Pacific Classic and Medaglia D'Oro - Pleasantly Perfect in the 2004 Dubai World Cup

Of course, similar great stretch contests have been waged in the past decade by runners such as Lava Man, Zenyatta, Perfect Drift, Evening Attire, and others, but I'm happy with my list as is.

Certainly in agreement with...

- Rags to Riches / Curlin in Belmont 2007
- Tiznow / Sakhee in BC Classic 2001 (one of the best I can recall)

I have to think Zenyatta's weaving through the BC Classic 2009 was a real gem in my opinion, doing what she did to pull that one off against a quality field.

Don't think it was mentioned yet, but the 1998 Classic with Awesome Again splitting Silver Charm and Coronado's Quest with Swain bolting...

Won't make many lists, but Desert Code threading through to win the inaugural BC Turf Sprint with the Mig aboard is also a personal favorite. I near lost my voice yelling "RICHIE" through the stretch run.

1997 Go For Wand: Hidden Lake gets passed by Flat Fleet Feet and fights back to win by a neck. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7AfpZ0pto8

Easy now.............not semi-retarded just misunderstood..................

I'll also throw in a vote for the 2004 Woodward..............Ghostzapper and Saint Liam. (awesome fractions)

'97 preakness (i believe)
free house captain bodgit silver charm
'97 derby
captain bodgit silver charm

'07 belmont
rags curlin

'01 BC classic (which i walked out on before the feature when i found out l'ville had a ceasars palace less then 5 miles away, DOH)
sakhee/tiznow


honorable mention
custom for carlos wall street wonder in this years toboggan

'07 travers
street sense grasshopper

-bt-

'84 BCC Wild Again-Gate Dancer-Slew 'O Gold
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqin6Xv5al0

'06 Azeri stakes Round Pond-Happy Ticket
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3r0w...eature=related

'62 Preakness Greek Money-Ridan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N23RCHGjyh8

'88 BC turf Great Communicator-Sunshine Forever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3ZOSh1qG5M

A hard charging Jazil in the Wood Memorial! :D

I doubt I'll ever witness live a stretch duel like Curlin and Rags to Riches in the Belmont Stakes.

2007 Tampa Bay Derby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWm_o9o6TbU

Street Sense vs. Any Given Saturday

Point Given vs Da Hoss....
Handicapping contest PG took the lead, opening quarter 25.3 no one really looked good early.... PG opens up through a half in 51.3 under no pressure at all from Hoss..... 1.14.2, but Hoss is cutting into the lead.... Then he catches me and copies my picks for the last day!!!!! NO AMAZING FINISH

I remember this, what you should have done was strategically copy his picks the last week of the contest...but instead you tried to be smart and or sporting and pulled a Leon Lett 5 yds from the goal line. Instead Dahoss beat ya to it by pulling the classic Jess Jackson...

I was pathetic that week, and he was equally horrible to let me lead for as long as I did.

I really enjoyed the Hamilton / Burr discussions!!

Zenyatta vs Cigar and Citation.

Freehouse was the other horse in that 1997 Preakness drive, not Came Home.

And it's Peppers Pride, with the speed of Lady's Secret, the class of Bayakoa and the heart of Sky Beauty, by two!

Jaipur/Ridan 62 Travers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rKCAhELwhc

Waquoit/Broad Brush 87 Mass cap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr5rKcfDMXM

Devil His Due/Lure 92 Gotham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6JT-__pG5U

John Henry/The Bart 81 Arl Million
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ2ByoMBq6k

Alysheba/Ferdinand 88 SA Hdcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz99i...eature=related

Ferdinand/Alysheba 87 BC Classic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk8G8...eature=related

Ferdinand/Broad Brush 87 SA Handicap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAEZ-...eature=related

Watch the last three and tell me racing wasnt so much better when horses actually raced against each other.