Quote:
Originally Posted by Dunbar
It was not always like it is now. Even TC winners Affirmed and Seattle Slew ran as 4-year-olds, providing the sport with exciting matchups like Slew vs Affirmed and Affirmed vs Spectacular Bid.
Affirmed ran 29 times, Slew 17 times. Authentic's 8-race career leaves no time for anyone to care.
The day before the Classic, I mentioned the race to a tennis buddy of mine. I was surprised that he took a look at the lineup beforehand, texted me he was picking Tacitus, and actually watched the race. Had Authentic continued to race, I'm guessing he would have taken notice.
When there's an almost entirely new cast every year, the chance of drawing new fans is nil. As some of the recent comments here have indicated, even hanging onto old fans is doubtful. I'm not 1/10th the fan I was 20 years ago, when the BC was by far my favorite sports event of the year.
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The real horses of the year (1986-2020)
Manila, Java Gold, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Go for Wand, In Excess, Paseana, Kotashaan, Holy Bull, Cigar, Alphabet Soup, Formal Gold, Skip Away, Artax, Tiznow, Point Given, Azeri, Candy Ride, Smarty Jones, Ghostzapper, Invasor, Curlin, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Goldikova, Havre de Grace, Wise Dan, Wise Dan, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Arrogate, Gun Runner, Accelerate, Maximum Security, Gamine
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