Best Horse to Race in US in 2018
 

Just curious as to who you guys think was the best horse to run in this country this year? Not the best resume or most accomplished or most historical. Just the best. My opinion is Enable with Gun Runner a close second.

Justify won the triple crown. I’ll go with him

So lined up in a race, you’re taking Justify over Gun Runner?

Enable.

Justify broke his maiden on February 18 and proceeds to be an undefeated triple Crown winner. He looked the part from the beginning and didn't disappoint. Gun Runner had a nice little run won some nice races. Justify never even ran at 2 and still did what he did.

He might be top 10.

I wasnt a huge Gun Runner guy. I used Arrogate and West Coast in last years Classic. Then made a huge win bet on West Coast in the Pegasus. With that said, if Gun Runner faced Justify it would have been a massive massive mismatch. Gun Runner would have crushed him.

I was not a fan of his either but there is no denying that he turned into a good horse. A really good horse. I think it’s logical to say that Justify was better early than Gun Runner was and with expected improvement as an older runner, he may have been better than Gun Runner became. But I didn’t see a single race from Justify in 2018 that was better than the race I saw from Gun Runner.

Utterly ridiculous to compare Gun Runner's older horse form against 3yo Justify. The two of them at 3, Justify crushes GR. If you look at what Gun Runner should've been doing given his form and maturity vs. Justify and what a 3yo should've been doing, it's more impressive for Justify to pull it all together like that (same applies to Accelerate v. Justify). When horses don't face each other we gotta get creative and not just give the older horse credit for their mature form, basically like when they judge dog shows and it's not 'Is the Collie better than the German Shorthaired Pointer?' It's 'How does the Collie compare to the standard of the Collie?' etc. Against what we've had from top 5yo form to compare it to, GR was certainly exceptional. To the standard of a 3yo, Justify's physical self is always gonna be up there, and then he goes and accomplishes something that shouldn't have been possible.

We're really lucky to have had both of them. I'd say the best this year on US ground would actually be Enable. The thing is, Justify wasn't even at his best and developed at 3 and then the tracks and weather didn't help. What I believe him capable of towers over everyone, though, so he's arguably it. Enable's Arc and then 114 Beyer in the BCT kind combines GR's older horse quality advantage with Justify's 'shouldn't have been able to do that on so little prep.' Then she traveled here to do it. I gotta bow to the honor of having her race here when everybody would've given them a pass on not even coming.

I find this post utterly ridiculous. I also find it highly unlikely you would have responded that way to anyone else. Who's Bob's biggest fan? Me. So im unbiased on this. On the track Justify beat up on shitty horses running, mediocre speed figures. He has a huge following which a triple crown winner deserves, but on the track Gun Runner was faster. His 2nd in Dubai to all timer Arrogate and his BC victory over Bobs big 3 are both much better then Justifys very best.

As for 3yr old form..... Gun Runners Clark beats pretty much anything Justify did. Now if you want to project that Justify could have been faster i guess thats ok, but i dont see it.

Could not agree more.

Enable's race gave me goosebumps. That does not happen much any more.

Absolutely

Was Justify’s accomplishment tougher and more impressive? Yes. Was he better early than Gun Runner? Yes. Could he have matured and been a better 4yo than Gun Runner? Possibly. But I’m not sure where you can find the handicapping tool or metric to say any of Justify’s races were better than what we saw from Gun Runner in 2018.