Can we talk about Orb?
 

In a DRF post on Facebook about Shug and Code of Honor, someone was running down Orb, and I just wanted to run the statement a commenter made by you guys. They called him mediocre. Now, people say stuff like that all the time about a lot of horses, some objectively *not* mediocre, and normally I'd just roll my eyes and move on. Maybe they lost money on whatever horse, who knows.

I just wanted to ask, since we have some time to look back with more context, what do you think of Orb as a racehorse now? Are you any more or less impressed with him in retrospect than you were at the time he was running? Have you always been 'meh'? Just any thoughts in general.

He was ok. Probably should have won the Travers with a dream trip under the underrated Lezcano.

Really? You think he ran a better race in the Travers than Palace Malice?

Orb was an excellent horse. Maybe mediocre for a Derby winner, and he was very fortunate to win that day, but he was still a very good horse.

Orb is somewhere between Monarchos and Always Dreaming. Basically horses that got good in Florida in the spring before peaking at Churchill (where conditions were made to order) before flaming out soon after for whatever reason.

Agreed with all of this.

If he didn’t win the Derby, I wonder how long he would have run. Maybe he would have gotten better with age? Maybe he simply peaked at the right time? Who knows. He won the Fountain of Youth, Florida Derby, and Kentucky Derby. Hard for me to call him mediocre.

Perspective matters. I’d like to think of a Derby winner in a romantic sense and want believe he’s a much better horse than just one that was best or lucky that day. In the overall scheme of things, he obviously was a good horse compared to all horses. But when compared to horses we want to believe were our best ones, he seems below average.

Mediocre? Definitely not. He's probably in the middle of the pack with regard to Kentucky Derby winners... but that's a damn good list to be in the middle of.

He's also the only winner from truly off the pace since the Derby points system started, for what that's worth.

I was on the Orb train relatively early that year, but he looked phenomenal over the Churchill strip in the week(s) leading up to the Kentucky Derby. The way he moved over that surface wasn’t seen again until American Pharoah prepared for his run. The way they glided over the surface cemented them as top choice (I know, I know, very shaky limb I’m going out on there ha). Either of those works don’t hold a candle to AP’s pre-Breeder’s Cup Classic workout though. I don’t think I’ve EVER been as confident on a horse after seeing them work, especially coming off a loss after being softened up for Keen Ice to run right on by in the Travers, and was a sure thing to be huge chalk in BCC.