Horse of the Decade By Track
 

Here's my thoughts.

NYRA Tracks:

AQU: Congaree in a total land slide. 4-for-4 at AQU in his career with a clean sweep of the 3 most important races.

In his stakes debut, took the Wood Memorial by 2.75 lengths over Monarchos. The Monarchos loss was sandwiched in between blowout wins in the Fla Derby and KY Derby.

In AQU start #2 - Congaree broke a 20+ year old record previously held by Spectacular Bid for fastest Ragozin sheet # ever recorded when he won the Grade 1 Cigar Mile with ease.

Also took the Grade 1 Carter with a 116 Beyer and repeated in the Cigar with a 120 Beyer.


BEL: Strong edge goes to Ghostzapper. 5-for-5 at Belmont with a trio of awesome Grade 1 wins at 6.5fs, 8fs, and 9fs. Also a huge Grade 2 True North win with a 1:20.42 clocking and an alw win that rates as perhaps the most memorable alw win of the decade by any horse.


SAR: Slight edge to Medaglia D' Oro over With Anticipation and Commentator.

MDO's 3-for-3 with a Travers/Whitney sweep and a 120 Beyer Jim Dandy score is just enough.


So Cal circuit:


DEL MAR: Skimming gets a strong edge. 4-for-4 at Del Mar with 2 Pacific Classic wins and a pair of awesome big figure wins in the San Diego.


Hollywood Park: Blowout for Lava Man. 3 Hollywood Gold Cup's. One with a 120 Beyer. One on synthetic. A 116 Beyer win in the Gr 2 Californian, a Grade 1 turf win in the Whittingham, and a course record in the Khaled.


Santa Anita: Totally up for grabs between a lot of different horses. I give a very thin and probably unpopular edge to Milwaukee Brew. 2-for-3 at Santa Anita with back-to-back outstanding wins in the Big Cap.

In only loss, was 2nd to Congaree...but one length in front of 3rd place Pleasantly Perfect. PP won the Goodwood, Breeders Cup Classic, and San Antonio in his final 3 SA starts.



Kentucky Circuit:


Churchill: Perfect setup and perfect trip and all ... Street Sense won a Breeders Cup Juvie with a giant Beyer as a 2yo and a Kentucky Derby at 3.

His sire Street Cry has the decade's best Churchill Beyer (118) - but he was only 3rd to Macho Uno and Point Given in the BC Juvie at CD. Einstein's done a lot and is also in the mix.


Keeneland: Slight edge to Take Charge Lady over Midway Road. MR was 4-for-4 including a 123 Beyer performance ... but TC was 5-for-5 with 4 major stakes wins.

Her 91 Beyer in the Gr 2 Alcibiades was the outright decade's fastest in that race. Her 109 Beyer in the Gr 1 Ashland was easily the decade's fastest in that race. She's also won back to back editions of the Grade 1 Spinster.


Turfway: Perfect Drift slight edge over Hard Spun. Both of them swept the major 3yo race and Ky Cup Classic. Perfect Drift beat Congaree in the Ky Cup Classic and Hard Spun beat Street Sense in his KY cup win.



Other major tracks:


Monmouth: English Channel. 3-for-3 .. a pair of Gr 1 wins in the United Nations .. one on firm and one on good ground. A 7 length BC Turf win over the course on soft ground in other start.


Arlington Park: Powerscourt. Crossed the wire first in both Arlington Million tries .. one a win over Kitten's Joy, the other time he was unfairly DQ'd.


Oaklawn Park: Azeri. 3 for 3 in the Apple Blossom with wins over Affluent, Take Chare Lady, and Wild Spirit. All wins in the 105-to-112 Beyer range.


Gulfstream Park: Hal's Hope. Wins in the Florida Derby, Gulfstream Park Handicap, Creme Fresch, and a 5+ length win at 40/1 odds in the Holy Bull as well as a 107 Beyer alw/opt clm win. Not to mention a 2nd in the Fountain of Youth and a 3rd in the Skip Away.


Fair Grounds: Peace Rules. La Derby win over super deep field including Kafwain, Funny Cide, and Badge of Silver. New Orleans Handicap win over Saint Liam and Funny Cide.


Tampa Bay Downs: Above The Wind. From Jan of 2000 to Jan of 2006 he won 8 out of 9 starts in Tampa dirt sprints. Including 3 runnings of the Pelican Stakes at odds of 65/1, 7/1, and 5/1.


Laurel: Xtra Heat. She did fail against the older males when 3rd in the Gr 1 De Francis. But still, 7-for-8 lifetime with six stakes wins at LRL.



Pimlico: Smarty Jones. No horse has swept the Preakness and Pimlico Special ... but Smarty Jones ran an outright decade Triple Crown series best 118 Beyer in the Preakness.

The following years Big Cap winner was 2nd by 11.5 lengths. The following years 5+ length Pimlico Special winner was 3rd by 13.5 behind Smarty Jones.


Delaware Park: Xtra Heat. 4-for-4 with Beyers of 117 and 120 as a 3yo filly.


Mountaineer: Fabulous Strike. 3-for-3 .. all blowout stakes wins with Beyers of 115, 119, and 117.

Louisiana Downs: Happy Ticket (6-for-6)


Evangeline: Hallowed Dreams.


Calder: No clue. Maybe a Gold Mover, or Revved Up, or Best of the Rest?


Golden Gate: Lost in the Fog was 2-for-3 there .. with a 103 Beyer debut win and a 110 Beyer ungraded Stakes win. Smokey Stover was 4-for-5 there with some powerful races. Something tells me there was probably something more deserving though ???


Bay Meadows: Hystericalady was 2-for-2 with a pair of triple digit Beyer wins before she made it big - they were both awesome performances .. but again .. something tells me there was probably someone else more deserving.


Not sure about the other remaining tracks off of the top of my head.

That Churchill Beyer by Street Cry is not as big as Mineshaft's losing effort on the thoros in the Foster.

At Fair Grounds, how about looking at the sprinters Euroears, Bonapaw, and Abajo?

At Santa Anita, Rock Hard Ten did pretty well, his only loss in the Santa Anita Derby I think.

How about Zenyatta for Oaklawn?

Street Cry's Foster Beyer was 118.

Perfect Drift and Mineshaft's Foster Beyers were both 117.

sheet figures take weight and ground loss on turns into account ... with Mineshaft having 123lbs and I believe a very wide trip on both turns from a wide post ... it's not hard to see how they have him running a little faster.

My point is Beyers are not the best guide. Mineshaft got a Negative 5 for that race. Still the fastest route race at Churchill ever.

How about Confucious Say at Charlestown. A huevo would have to be mentioned.

As for Saratoga, does Pomeroy get a look?

I thought about Bonapaw - but he was 9 for 25 there.. and the two Peace Rules wins were really strong.

I agree that RHT is one of a lot of different horses who can fit for Santa Anita.

The Thoro-Graph figures have a runaway scale though ... good alw horses at Churchill these days run 10 lengths faster than Sunday Silence, Alysheba, and Ferdinand on TG.

They aren't a good tool for comparisons over a long time frame.

Probably for CS at CT.

A negative on Pomeroy. He was 3-for-5 at SAR. Wins coming over War Front, I'm the Tiger, and Weigelia.

Regardless, they are at least a good comparison for the last decade and the years that Mineshaft and Street Cry ran in were similar enough for me to unequivocally say that Mineshaft has the fastest number at CD.

los alamitos

blues girl too.

champion filly.

http://www.aqha.com/magazines/aqhrj/...uesgirltoo.pdf

I wouldn't disagree.

I thought Mineshaft was an outstanding horse to say the least once he got lasix ... but still, he doesn't belong in the discussion as Churchill horse of the decade. He ran 2 races there .. an alw win by 1.5 lengths and a great defeat to Perfect Drift in the Foster.

I think I've seen 20 or 30 horses this decade who I'm confident would smear Street Sense at Churchill ... but Street Sense has the best credentials to be named CD horse of the decade.

At Santa Anita, I think Tiznow has the edge. Big Cap, Strub, San Fernando and goodwood.

Pleasantly Perfect could fit as well but i think Tiz was just a better horse and his Goodwood his 3 year old year was a great performance.

Kentucky Downs?
Ellis Park?
Golden Gate?
Emerald Downs?

He didn't win the Strub. He was 2nd to Wooden Phone.

Tiznow's 119 Beyer in the Goodwood as a 3yo - the start before his first BC Classic win - was actually the fastest race of his entire career number wise.

However, he was 6th in his debut at Santa Anita ... and you have the pair of stakes defeats to the sad pair of Wooden Phone and Freedom Crest. That really opens the door for a lot of others.

Pleasantly Perfect got thumped twice by Milwaukee Brew there ... and in MB's only other SA start ... he won the Big Cap by 4 lengths with a 118 Beyer. That put him over the top for me.

Good points. Too bad mizzen mast didnt have a bigger body of work. His two races there were lights out.

didn't milwaukee repeat in the big cap the following year over congaree by a nose?