Best Victory over Males
 

We might have done this before, and even I might have started it, but I was in the mood for one of those threads. :D Rank the victories below, extra credit given to those who state why.

- Rags to Riches Belmont Stakes

- Rachel Alexandra Preakness

- Rachel Alexandra Haskell

- Rachel Alexandra Woodward

- Zenyatta BC Classic

Those are in order. Rags beat Curlin. Rachel's others go in order from distance to general impressiveness. Zenyatta beat an interesting group but nothing spectacular.

I am just happy you are in the mood and will leave it at that

Hmmm...I think maybe Rags beating Curlin.

But Sighty are we only dealing with US. horseys here, what about Goldikova always beating the boys????

:eek:
:o
Freddyperv maybe instead of freddymo?

I was going for U.S. dirt races.

Freddy, I'm always in the mood













































to talk horseys.

Gotcha!!!

Whatever works..who am I to judge?

Oh, fun one, Sightseek!

Rags' Belmont was so great to watch when she and Curlin both kicked away from the rest of the field and went head-to-head the whole way down the stretch, but it was very slow and Hard Spun and Curlin ran well in both the Derby and Preakness and I think were a bit tired, while Rags had the benefit of a rest.

That was a fun Belmont- almost as good for me as Big Brown's, which was great not for the lame race, but for spending a nice day with FGFan. :)

I think I'd give it to Rachel's Preakness. Honest pace, large field, outside post and she'd also run two weeks (and one day) previous.

rachel / preakness , zenyatta b.c and rags belmont were equally impressive.

1. Zen's bc
2. Rags Belmont
3. Rachels Woodward
4. Rachels Haskell
5. Rachels Preakness

Belmont, Classic, Haskell, Preakness, Woodward.

Rags beat the best group in the Belmont. Hard Spun and Curlin, both very very good horses. Zenyatta beat a bunch of G1 winners and did it with style. It was not the best group, but a lot better then anything Rachel beat in her 3 trys. The Haskell was Rachels best race IMO. Summer Bird and Munnings were both OK at the time. That Preakness was bad, and Mine That Bird who is and was a slug put in a giant run at her. Other then Rachel, easily the worse Woodward I can remember. Macho Again was trash and so was everyone else in that race.

Hard Spun was a monster going 12 furlongs.

Unlucky he came around in that year. He was a total monster.
I think his last 2 races that year really proved he was special. The trip in the Belmont was a joke, no telling what could have been. One could argue he was best in the Derby.

That crop freaking sucked Joey.

Relative to most recent years however, I can see why you might be confused and say something like Hard Spun was unlucky to come along in that crop.

He was okay, but hardly a monster. Horse racing actually existed before 2001. Instead of spending countless hours posting gibberish you should look into some of it.

Im not confused and I am comparing to the recent crops. Super Saver and MTB winning Derby, and those big 3 came along in the same year. Thats all Im saying.

The crop that MTB was in was actually pretty decent, but was decimated by injuries.

I think it's far from a certainty that Hard Spun would have fared that well in that year had that crop stayed sound.

I stongly disagree with this. Hard Spun showed in the BC he loved the slop, I think he wins that Derby fairly easily. If I remember correctly Fresian Fires what the chalk and I had POTN as my lone A. Big Drama was a sprinter period, Summer Bird did not get really good until the Travers IMO. Dunkirk ran 1 good race. And like you said the 2 big horses got hurt.

Hands down Rags to Riches for me. I know people say that Curlin was tired from the first two legs but still, he was Curlin. What made it even more impressive to me in retrospect is that Curlin went on to win the JCGC and BC Classic and be named HOY. Not only did Rags beat him but she beat him in a battle. No getting out front and lasting. No catching horses that tired from the pace. The two of them hooked up and she outran him. In terms of quality of competition faced, I'd take this race over all three of Rachel's against the boys. Zenyatta's was good but it wasn't great to me. Even though we know grass horses tend to run well on synthetics, it's not a given that all do and Rip Van Winkle didn't. That left a pretty average group of horses. Twice Over was no great thing. Gio Ponti, for all that he's done, has never won a race that wasn't on grass. Summer Bird was not a bad horse but he was also realistically probably no better than the 5th or 6th best 3yo (if all were healthy) and he was also not on his preferred surface.

1-Rags
2-Rachel's Preakness
3-Rachel's Haskell
4-Zenyatta
5-Rachel's Woodward

PS-I'd take Winning Colors' Derby and Preakness over all of them.

Welcome back Kingie! :)

Gracias. And thank you to Steve for letting me back.

You should actually thank Byk for making sure you weren't around for the six months prior to Zenyatta losing in the BCC.

What are you talking about? She didn't lose. How could she have lost if she was just named HOY? That doesn't make any sense.

I stand corrected.

You are just real lucky you weren't subjected to the likes of Smooth Operator and CSC1985 prior to her astonishing second place win in the BCC.

You'd have popped your aorta.

You can shoot holes in all of them if you want, but I think I'd take Rachel's Haskell because she beat the Belmont/Travers winner, and it was such a dominating and fast performance. Was it aided by the track?

Rags beating Curlin is great, agree. For her to hold that monster off was really something.

Zenyatta's was great, but it is just so difficult to translate everyone's form to that surface. The best names in the race were turf and dirt horses. Gio Ponti was the turf champ, Rip was a turf horse, Summer Bird was the 3yo champ for his dirt effort.

Rachel's Woodward was amazing considering the fractions she faced and the way she put away challenge after challenge. Holding on by a diminishing head vs Macho Again doesn't come close to telling the story.

That race was her most impressive to me. Both the closers were at the top of their game at the time and she had every reason to lose that race.

Awww!!!:p
It was a really fun day, hopefully we'll do it again!!!

Gallorette over Stymie in the 1946 Brooklyn Handicap, then winning the 1948 Carter AND Whitney as a 6YO mare. Twilght Tear over Pensive in the 1944 Pimlico Special. Busher over multi-older horse of the year winner Armed in the 1945 Washington Park Handicap.

i'll take rachels 3 wins vs males vs the other horses 1 total. most 3 yo colts don't get that kind of schedule, let alone win those three. her season was a treat.