"fan favorite all-time Thoroughbreds bracket challenge"
 

The Paulick Report is doing this. So far they have released the top 7 seeds.

I'm surprised Afleet Alex and Funny Cide didn't make the list.

People would have to be more than 100 years old to remember Man O' War. His fans are all in the ground.

Zenyatta should win this easily. Even when she beat Rinterval and Dance To My Tune you'd think she just delivered a performance for the ages by the way her fans would go nuts.

I've seen this on there and don't understand the point. Smarty Jones tops my list, why should I care how many other people like him. He's my favorite for my own reasons.

Was the Funny Cide beer any good? How a horse with their own beer doesn't make the top 7 seeds, I don't know.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious who's gonna win and then we'll have to read about her being the most beloved horse of all time or some such nonsense. I think that any of the ones with fans who gush online as if that horse reads and types their own blog should be docked a placement on the tournament. This should be the Sane Fan Favorite Tournament. It's not Phar Lap's fault he lived before the internet.

I'm sure when the remaining seeds come out, I'll be ready to grumble about who got hosed. Not that it matters. Life will go on.

I've had about what feels like 1,000 different horses I've liked for what feels like 100 totally different reasons.

Horses at all ability levels.

It's not very specific.

Easy Goer was the first race horse I was ever a fan of. I was a loyal fan of Strike The Gold even though he was a sucker horse. Fabulous Strike, I was not only a fan of his, but he was an excellent sprinter and I would visit him and pet him in the mornings when he was here.

Horses that meant good betting scores to me were obvious fan favorites to me. I once named a pet stray cat I took in after a high priced claiming horse named Boodles... the cat pissed all over the walls and I had to return him to the streets a few days later.

My E-mail address is named after a John Sherriffs debuter who paid $20 after he got put by DQ in his debut. He ended up racing for 5K later on in his career.

I never had the Funny Cide beer. They named a street after him as well at Saratoga.

Empire Maker got loudly boo'd in the post parade. That's how crazy Funny Cide fans were... they'd boo another horse. Only time I really remember that ever happening.

Although, not to be outdone, I think ESPN reported that one of Zenyatta's fans made death threats against one of her opponets.

Here it is:

http://zipseatthetrack.blogspot.com/...-to-horse.html


Unreal.

You have to go down a little more to find Afleet Alex..


8s: Silver Charm, Frankel, Shackleford, Point Given
9s: Afleet Alex, A.P. Indy, Go For Wand, Prairie Bayou
10s: LAVA MAN, Buckpasser, Exterminator, With Anticipation

Shackleford? :zz: Look, he's a beautiful horse, but when fans list their favorites of all time, I doubt he comes up for most people.

Where is everybody looking? I went to his FB page, didn't see the 8-10s and his website itself, and I didn't see the bracket referenced at all.

Prarie Bayou?

On closer inspection it does seem a little "out there". Here is the link for 8-10 http://www.facebook.com/permalink.ph...86665558059885

Seabiscuit anyone?

since most people anymore seem to suffer from some form of add, and yesterday is ancient history(and if it isn't on f/b it didn't happen)....one would have to figure it'll come down to smarty, zenyatta and rachel. some of my all time favorites aren't on the list-and a few wouldn't be on any list other than one i put together. paulickreport assumes only big name horses can be fan faves, and that's far from the case.

Funny Cide beer was made by Ole Saratoga Brewing Company, a micro brewery at the Spa......it was a "lite" beer also :D

Yeah man, I saw that one and thought the same thing.

Talk about random.

I still have a couple in my garage...thirsty?

Yeah I liked him a lot, but still, don't know what that's about. I, too, am aboard the Strike the Gold train. He wins the Derby after we lose Alydar, and STG was my first Derby pick partly cuz I was a mess after that.

It's hard to think through all horses ever and bust out my favorites because that's just such a wide net and some are already up there. Gonna have to really brainstorm. Some that come to mind so far: Skip Away, Evening Attire, Fourstars Allstar, Stymie, Gun Bow, Azeri, Real Quiet, Free House, Happy Ticket, Megahertz, Blind Luck, Lakeway, Lite Light (because hey, MC Hammer at the Oaks?). There's more, and I'm not really thinking of them to rank, just embracing nostalgia.

Bold Forbes is a personal favorite because I got to see him, John Henry, and Forego at the KY Horse Park and BF was such a total ham. Might've told this story before, but he saw me trying to take a picture so he ran around in a big circle in his paddock to find the best light (swear to God) then struck a pose. Pre-digital cameras and no idea where the film went. Grr.

me too! :p

One of the more bizarre lists I've ever seen.

Citation and Whirlaway had two of the greatest 3yo seasons of all-time and both horses were tremendously popular in their day ... and neither appear in the top 10 seeds.

Yet, Exterminator -- who was much older and less popular is on the list.

The ice cream (made by Stewarts) was better!

And where's Stymie on this silly thing?

How in the heck is Shackleford more of a "fan favorite" than Citation or freaking Whirlaway? Not to mention the Prairie Bayou silliness.

Big Brown? Didn't people love to hate Big Brown more than actually love Big Brown?

The Prairie Bayou thing boggles the mind. Just thinking of horses who ran in the Triple Crown series alone since 1993, Thunder Gulch, Fusaichi Pegasus, even freaking Giacomo were probably more popular than Prairie Bayou. Of horses who left us prematurely, Go for Wand was surely a more popular horse than Prairie Bayou.

Horses who haven't raced in almost 100 years like Man O' War and Exterminator don't have "fans" -- scarecy anyone still alive has even witnessed them.

And if they are included, where do you draw the line?

Salvator ("the horse of the century") from the 1890's -- he had negro folk songs about him, one of the great writers in the DRF used his name as a pen name, he always attracted huge crowds.

Old Rosebud "the courages cripple" was at least as popular with racing fans than any horse from his time period (Man O' War and Exterminator included) Equipoise was also very popular.

Carbine -- born in 1885 -- finished 2nd to Phar Lap in the all-time Melbourne Cup simulation based on the polling of 22 "experts" of the turf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM5eV...feature=g-vrec

Good race call.

snow cheif had a big fan base but that was a long time ago

They forgot "The Green Monkey" :D

No, neither was the purple Zenyatta kool aid

They're doing a few matchups, asking you to "vote" by commenting on FB. Why don't you go tell Paulick who you prefer-- Secretariat or Groovy, Kelso or Better Talk Now. :rolleyes: Gee, let me think. PS. Secret option C in all cases is Zenyatta.

Sadly, Kelso is beating Better Talk Now in the voting.

1-seed Zenyatta VS 16-seed Lady's Secret.

Imagine if Wayne Lukas trained Zenyatta. That would have been scary.

3-seed John Henry VS 14-seed Citation

In 1999 Timeform's handicappers rated the best American horses of the last century that lead with the following:

Secretariat 144 pounds
Citation 142 pounds
Spectacular Bid 141 pounds
Man O' War 139 pounds

Citation is seeded much lower than Prarie Bayou and Exterminator.

I don't think I could drink any beer that was a "cide".

Spectacular Bid as a 5 seed? With Anticipation made the list?

Spectacular Bid wasn't an especially popular horse like a lot of champions from the 70's.

He wasn't a NY or California based horse with a built in fan base. His jockey and trainer were both VERY unlikeable people. Both in general, and with the racing press.

He came around at a time when he followed a bunch of very popular great racers (Secretariat, Ruffian, Forego, Affirmed, Alydar, Seattle Slew)

Unlike a lot of great horses, he was heavily traveled and heavily campaigned and tested all through his racing career and he even traveled all over and took on some big weight concessions at age 4 and he always made his competition look a lot worse than they actually were under closer and competent inspection.

I think Timeform made a mistake not rating him the outright number one horse of the last century. When you compare horses on merit, record for record, he simply holds an advantage over all of the other horses.

:tro::tro::tro:The Best Horse of The Century, hands down, The Bid was The Best............:tro:

The crowd at Belmont boo'ed during the his last race, the walkover.

They must have been a bunch of a-holes, The Bid just closed out his amazing career with a walkover in a GRADE 1 race, They had no clue that they were witnessing the greatest horse that ever ran...........

Not gonna lie, don't mind With Anticipation personally as I was always a fan. Gorgeous grey, by Relaunch out of Fran's Valentine. Looked forward to it whenever he ran. I'd get it if others disagree. Not sure where he really ought to be ranked though. This tournament's in a bizarro universe anyway.

yeah, bud delp rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. his comments that the bid was the best to ever look through a bridle weren't well received, especially coming so soon after secretariat, with two other tc winners right after. after all was said and done tho, i think delp was right. but people don't always want to hear the truth.

Aint that the TRUTH