BC Juvie: Arazi or Uncle Mo?
 

Which race impressed you the most?

MO? Very biased I was at the Travers. He looked better in person. Hope he stays good.

R U Yoda?

Sightseek,

I had the pleasure of attending both the 91 and 2010 Breeder's Cup. Arazi was most impressive because he was almost dead last going into the final turn and by the time he blew past Bertrando at the top of the stretch on the wrong lead and was pulling away. Uncle Mo performance was good...but in my eyes not great.

BTW...was Bertrando the hard luck horse in the history of the Breeder's cup? First get clobbered by Arazi in the Juvie and when he was thinking home free in the BC Classic two years later...he comes Arcangues.

arazi, half of the good horses in this crop....probably have not even raced yet. why is every 3 yo maiden and non winners allowance race looked at now?? because many horses don't even race until they are 3 or have one race. the derby is a total crap shoot until about april and even then someone pops up, look at the past 10 years. the BC juvenile is usually a kiss of death if you win it. too early for these horses today.

I witnessed Uncle Mo's hugely impressive BCJ in person, and have watched the race on the DVR a few more times. He made it seem easy, and if he can carry that form through this year oh what a thrill we'll be in for!
Only pic I got of him:

I've been looking for an excuse to post it. ;)


That being said, to me Arazi's BCJ win was even more impressive. Starting on the backstretch, he began to smoke the other horses and just never let up. His was one of the most impressive victories of any BC races.

I wasn't at the Arazi BC, but I was there for this one and I can definitively say I've never seen a 2yo run like that. Total command all the way around against what I think was a good group of runners. Arazi's move was a WOW, but Mo completely dominated and destroyed the field before they ever turned home.

What could he have done differently to have been "great" in that race?

Hard IMO to seperate the two. Unc Mo simply dominated the race and when you consider it was the BC Juvi. it's a great performance and not just a good one for sure. I'll give the nod to Azeri right now simply based on quality of the field, still yet to be determined in Mo's case.

BTW Here's another great performance in a BC 2yr old race and one of my favorites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UbbPN3xwnU

Awesome.

That's a really good question.

I was there for the Arazi race, but not for Uncle Mo's.

All I can tell you is that when Arazi made his move there was a collective gasp in the stands that I haven't heard many times in 35 years of going to the races.

Numbers people are probably going to prefer Mo because he ran the faster race, but I think Arazi demonstrated a level of acceleration and a sustained run that is pretty rare. I suspect he was capable of running quite a bit faster if required at that time.

I always thought it was shame that he got so hyped after that. Then with the surgery and lack of development at 3, when he didn't fulfill any of the hopes he sort of lost a lot of credit for how great he was at 2.

Between those two I would probably go with Mo over Arazi. Others that might deserve mention here are War Pass, Street Sense, and Unbridled's Song.

From a speed figure perspective War Pass's BCJ was much better than Arazi's and also better than Uncle Mo's, although obviously War Pass had a style/trip that lent itself to a big fig that day.
Street Sense's winning move was - in my mind - almost as eye-catching as Arazi's, and on the whole I thought Street Sense's overall race was better. He also ran a considerably faster speed figure than Arazi.
I was never a big fan of Unbridled's Song but I might actually rank his BCJ at or very near the top. He overcame a trip that was considerably different than his previous races and prevailed in a long stretch battle against a quality colt while being pinned along the rail the entire time and ran a 103 BSF.

This has got to be a trick question. Arazi's performance was not only the best in the history of that race but one of the most impressive I've ever seen in any race.

Visually, perhaps.

Really though, no one in that race really did fire that day, and besides Bertrando, the field was pretty weak.

My perceived bias aside, I thought Mo's race was better.

Welcome back btw.

Thank you. I guess time will tell us how good the field was that Mo beat too. I think that after the Arazi race, I felt that there was absolutely no way that he could lose the Derby. I think that during those years, we had a chance to see more of the 2yos and what they could do in stakes competition so we had a better line on them. These days, they race so little and start so late that it's harder to get a line on them. Off the top of my head, it seems like more and more, the horses that turn out to be the best 3yos aren't even known until Dec-Feb. Smarty Jones wasn't considered near the top of his class until Oaklawn. Flower Alley the next year emerged at Oaklawn. Bernardini came into prominence in the spring. Curlin and Big Brown, same thing. Summer Bird. The point I am getting at is that I thought that Arazi's was better but was also against much more accomplished competition which makes it even more impressive.

The first Derby I ever watched was 1992 and the programming was all Arazi-this Arazi-that. I don't think they even mentioned another horse so I was all confused how he could possibly loose.

To this day, I'm still convinced that Arazi didn't lose. His connections failed him but he didn't lose. I always thought that was a pretty weak argument on my behalf.........until 2010.......when I learned that you really do win when you lose.

Me too.

I am also convinced of one of two things. Either his trainer sabotaged Arazi to prove a point, or Arazi had huge soundness issues and the trainer really was trying to protect the horse.

I have no way of knowing which is the case, but being the cynic that I am....