Best horses of the 1980's by division
 

Based on past performances I've studied and some old charts I've seen and old races I've watched - I thought I'd take a stab this morning.


2-year-old male: Easy Goer - Devil's Bag - Chief's Crown - Grand Canyon

2-year-old female: Princess Rooney - Landaluce - Before Dawn - Althea

3-year-old male: Sunday Silence - Easy Goer - Spend A Buck - Conquistador Cielo

3-year-old female: Winning Colors - Genuine Risk - Mom's Command - Bold N' Determined

Older male: Spectacular Bid - Alysheba - Ferdinand - Turkoman

Older female: Personal Ensign, Lady's Secret, Princess Rooney, Bayakoa

Turf male: John Henry, Manila, Theatrical, Steinlen

Turf female: Miesque, All Along, Pebbles, Royal Heroine

Sprint male: Groovy, Precisonist, Phone Trick, Smile

Sprint female: Gold Beauty, Very Subtle, Safely Kept, Pine Tree Lane


Feel free to argue or agree. I'd be interested in hearing takes from people who were around and betting or in the industry through that time.

Open Mind would be my only argument. She ended the decade with a rush. 2yr old and 3yr old Eclipse Award winner which included an awesome year in 1989.

I considered Open Mind for both 2yo and 3yo filly. I think she has a pretty decent case for 4th in both divisions. She did tail off in the fall as a 3yo though - and that was enough for me to keep her off.

Go For Wand was a champion 2yo filly in '89 - she was such a great 3yo - but her 2yo championship season really wasn't good enough other than maybe to put her in the running for 4th.

You had a lot of really outstanding horses that decade. The four older females are incredibly strong. I think you could make a case Personal Ensign is only 3rd best there. They're real close imo.

List looks pretty good. Made one change.

I always felt Relaxing was one of the best mares of the time. Not sure if I could rate her higher than any on your list but I thought she was tops.
Spend A Buck was as game a frontrunner as I've ever seen. He's much closer to SS and EG than any other 3yo was to him.

On the Line, I'd to this day still rate him as one fo the best five sprinters I've ever seen. Perhaps top three.

A good case could be made for Althea as a 3yo filly as well.

It is hard to argue against any of these but given the emphasis put on the Kentucky Derby for 3yos l I think I would give the edge to a Derby winner like Alysheba over CC in a close call like this one.
Obviously CC's Met Mile/Belmont double is impressive, but I'd favor a Derby/Preakness winner like Alysheba over that, especially given Alysheba's impressive BCC place performance to cap that year.

Older male, Greinton most certainly was a better horse than Ferdinand. I'd say the same for Precisionist as well.

On pure raw talent, I'd put Swear in the 2yos.

I would put Java Gold above Spend A Buck. Estrapade should also be given consideration.

You definitely seem to have done your homework on this list - though I can't argue with your list of older male horses - I dislike the fact that Winter's Tale or Fit to Fight did not make it. Though there speed figures might not be as high, I held them in that high a regard.

Also, I always thought that Groovy was slightly over-rated...

I'd take Shimatoree or Cure the Blues in a match race at 6 furlongs any day of the week.

Good stuff though....

At 6 furlongs I would take Jones Time Machine.

At 7 furlongs A Phenomenon

While the 4 turf fillies all obviously belong, April Run is a forgotten filly who was tremendous in her US starts. Her connections almost never bothered to run against fillies.

Also forgotten is the 3 yo campaign of filly De La Rose who lost at least twice because of poor rides. After a sluggish start of the season on the dirt in FL, she just missed to her stable mate in the KY Oaks. Once switched to the turf she won an alw over boys easily, the Saranac(G2) (then run at Belmont) over boys by 6, the Long Branch (gr3)(then run on turf)by 8, followed by a debacle in the CCA, then a bad ride 2nd against colts in the Lexington (gr2). She then beat older mares in the Diana, ran 2nd in the Flower Bowl with another bad ride, won an overnight stakes, the Athenia(gr3) easily, the EP Taylor over older mares handily and finished up the season with a win in the Hollywood derby(Gr1) over colts again.

Sunshine Forever's three year old season was great but he gets forgotten because he stunk as a 4 yo and as a sire.
As a 3 yo he:
Broke his maiden on April 25th
won an allowance race
ran 2nd in the Saranac (Gr2) to Posen with a troubled trip
won another allowance race
Won the Hill Prince (Gr 3)by 6
Won the Lexington (gr2)
Ran 2nd to olders in the Sword Dancer (gr1)
Ran 3rd in the AP million (gr1) (at Woodbine)
Won the Man O War (gr1) over olders (gr1)
Won the Turf Classic (gr1) over olders by 4
Won the DC International over olders (gr1)
Ran 2nd beaten less than a length by Great Communicator in the BC Turf.

I dont know if Smile was as good a sprinter as Chinook Pass.

How does this sprinter match up, Eillo ran in 83 & 84

I agree with you about Greinton and Precisionist. I think they were both much better horses than Ferdinand.

And what about John Henry? Even though he ran more often on the grass, he was just as good on the dirt as the grass. He was a much better horse than Ferdinand.

Yep.

Ferdinand is one of those horses that is historically underrated, but yeah, there were better ones in the 80's than him.

How do you think Melair would have compared with the other female sprinters?

How bout Gulch?

I was thinking either CC or Risen Star for the 4th spot. Alysheba was 3-for-10 at age 3 .. with a couple of real dud performances in the Belmont and Travers.

CC ran giant in the Met Mile - crush Silver Charm's sire Silver Buck who came right back and took a couple of Gr 1's for olders in the Suburban and a Whitney win over Winter's Tale.

Just six days after winning the Met by 7+ lengths in a field of 14 - CC wins the Belmont by 14 lengths over a last out Ky Derby winner in a field of 11.

CC did lose the Travers at 2/5 - but Beyer claimed in one of his books that there was a dead rail at Saratoga that day - and he was stuck on it thanks to Cordero pinning him on Aloma's Ruler. I think if you can forgive the Travers effort - he's maybe even 3rd to Spend a Buck.

Melair could really fly. I was in love with a 3yo filly named Ski Goggle who destroyed Princess Rooney in the Acorn i believe. She was soon hurt, and never appeared again.

I was thinking the same thing.......he was a terrific racehorse, and extremely versatile. The problem is that he spent most of his career not sprinting.

Two-time Met Mile winner! :)

I know! He was the first horse I ever loved (well, aside from those I never saw, like Slew, Man o'War and Phar Lap), so I have a special place in my heart for him. Jolley ran him long all the time; Lukas had the smarts to turn him back into a sprinter. That BC is remembered for Personal Ensign, but my true joy was Gulch winning that Sprint

I do think Chinook Pass was the best sprinter of that decade.

I don't agree at all that John Henry was just as good on dirt as he was on grass.

Here's John Henry's career on dirt in stakes races - races from most recent on:

Hollywood Gold Cup: 2nd by 2

Santa Anita Handicap: 5th by 8

Jockey Club Gold Cup: 5th by 7

Meadowlands Cup: 3rd by 6

Santa Anita Handicap: 2nd by a nose - placed 1st through DQ

Jockey Club Gold Cup: 1st by a head over Peat Moss

Hollywood Gold Cup: 4th by 3

Santa Anita Handicap: 1st by 1 over King Go Go

Jockey Club Gold Cup: 2nd by 5.5

San Marcos Stakes: 1st by 2.5 over El Fantastico

Capital City Handicap: 4th by 2 (33K stake at Penn National)

Mass Cap: 10th by 8.5

I think John Henry was clearly a better turf horse. At age 9, he won the final six turf races of his career - all major turf races.

Chinook Pass might have been - probably was - the fastest/quickest sprinter of the decade ... but he never won a single Graded Stakes race.

CP was 0-for-3 lifetime in Graded Stakes attempts.

The richest race he ever won - and by far - was the Longacres Mile.

LOL, well, he won the Bing Cosby by 8 lengths, and got the Eclipse award for best sprinter.

Wasn't that the horse trained by a guy named Laurie?

The Bing Crosby only had a 54K purse at that time. I'm sure he deserved to be champion sprinter. Maybe he belongs on the list - I don't know.

Pincay says he's the still the fastest he's ridden or seen. That is bizarre (his fastest horse never won a Graded Race.)

Looking at the stats, I think you are right. It was so long ago. I remembered him winning the SA Handicap a couple of times. He was my favorite horse at the time. I remember him winning a lot of big races on the dirt.

Are you sure he ran 2nd in the Jockey Club Gold Cup? At pedigreequery.com, it shows that he won that race. It was so long ago, I can't remember whether he won it or ran 2nd. I think he won it but I'm not sure.

Maybe you should look at the list again.

I see it now. He had a win and a 2nd in the JCGC.

Conquistador Cielo's Met Mile followed shortly by his Belmont victory was one of the highlights of the 1980's - but I don't know if it would have occurred without the Masterful training of Woody Stephens - look at the career of Creme Fraiche and you can only start to appreciate his great talents as a horse trainer

I was at Silver Buck's win in the July 4, 1982 Suburban at Belmont and remember that Eliott Burch had the colt in peak condition - I don't think anyone could have beaten him that day

IMO Winter Tale was much better than his race record due to chronic shin problems that plagued him alot

I was curious how high Track Barron and Vanlandingham were ranked on the list of 1980 horses

no way. i can only think of one u.s. turf horse i would rank ahead of the great john henry, and that would be round table. i was a fan of manila, but no way he is ahead of john.

Manila beat the toughest BC Turf field ever assembled - and I think it's likely his best turf races were a little better than John Henry's best ... but when you take overall body of work into account .. it's really not that close between the two.

If you count 1 turn miles as a sprint, she'd have been untouchable.

By just about anyone.

I'll include the 90's and this past decade into this. You'll now have fields of 12.

2-year-old male:

80's: Easy Goer, Devil's Bag, Chief's Crown, Grand Canyon
90's: Afternoon Deelites, Favorite Trick, Maria's Mon, Arazi
00's: War Pass, Macho Uno, Stevie Wonderboy, Street Sense


2-year-old female:

80's: Princess Rooney, Landaluce, Before Dawn, Althea
90's: Meadow Star, Silverbulletday, Flanders, Phone Chatter
00's: Tempera, Storm Flag Flying, Halfbrideld, You


3-year-old male:

80's: Sunday Silence, Easy Goer, Spend A Buck, Conquistador Cielo
90's: Holy Bull, Skip Away, Unbridled, Silver Charm
00's: Smarty Jones, Tiznow, Point Given, Bernardini


3-year-old female:

80's: Winning Colors, Genuine Risk, Mom's Command, Bold N' Determined
90's: Go For Wand, Silverbulletday, Serena's Song, Dance Smartly
00's: Rachel Alexandra, Rags To Riches, Xtra Heat, Surfside


Older male:

80's: Spectacular Bid, Alysheba, Ferdinand, Turkoman
90's: Skip Away, Cigar, Criminal Type, Formal Gold
00's: Ghostzapper, Mineshaft, Medaglia D' Oro, Congaree


Older female:

80's: Personal Ensign, Lady's Secret, Princess Rooney, Bayakoa
90's: Inside Information, Bayakoa, Sharp Cat, Paseana
00's: Zenyatta, Azeri, Riboletta, Sightseek


Turf male:

80's: John Henry, Manila, Theatrical, Steinlen
90's: Daylami, Lure, Kotashaan, Paradise Creek
00's: Fantastic Light, Leroidesanemeaux, Kitten's Joy, Conduit


Turf female:

80's: Miesque, All Along, Pebbles, Royal Heroine
90's: Flawlesssly, Ridgewood Pearl, Miss Alleged, Borgia
00's: Ouija Board, Goldikova, Banks Hill, Six Perfections


Sprint male:

80's: Groovy, Precisonist, Phone Trick, Smile
90's: Artax, Housebuster, Kona Gold, Reraise
00's: Kona Gold, Midnight Lute, Swept Overboard, Fabulous Strike


Sprint female:

80's: Gold Beauty, Very Subtle, Safely Kept, Pine Tree Lane
90's: Safely Kept, Soviet Problem, Mefera, Capote Belle
00's: Xtra Heat, Honest Lady, Indian Blessing, Madcap Escapade


It's amazing how there doesn't appear to be one huge standout among the horses in any division. Maybe Spectacular Bid over horses like Skip Away, Ghostzapper, Cigar, Alysheba... but that's about it.