[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

That sounds all good in theory but that's not the reality as far as Gamine's campaign goes. She faced fields of 6, 7, and 8 horses in her big wins. Furthermore, despite the notion that American breeding is geared toward speed, Gamine was left untouched early in the Acorn and her main pace rival in the Test was thwarted by a hammerlock from her rider down the backstretch. Gamine also had the run of the race in the Kentucky Oaks yet failed to even threaten to break the race open, never mind capitalize on the ideal setup and win.

She faced a grand total of 7 different Grade 1 winners all year, beating 5 of those.


You down play the versatility of Swiss Skydiver. The pace numbers for several of her route races were high and she was in the mix or setting the fractions in the majority of those. On the Beyer scale she ran slightly faster (while hounding the same pace rival Gamine later faced in the Test) than Gamine at Oaklawn over 8.5 furlongs in early May...and she wasn't subsequently disqualified. Swiss Skydiver absolutely crushed going 7 furlongs in her debut.

And if history tells us anything, middle distance horses absolutely terrorize sprinters at 7 furlongs more often than not (see the 1991 Deputy Minister replay I posted a couple of weeks back or the history of the Malibu and the La Brea)...at least in a full field on a fair racetrack.

My argument would be that beating Venetian Harbor at 7f is more impressive than beating her at 8.5f since sprinting is what she does best.

I'm not surprised that Gamine's early pace numbers aren't that great. I never thought she was particularly fast early which is why I thought she would get outrun early and be a non factor in the BC. Man, was I wrong on that one.

You bringing up middle distance horses beating sprinters is just not fair. Because I know it to be true. Of course I remember learning that lesson in my early years after watching Precisionist, Gulch, and Dancing Spree win the Sprint.

In the end, I can't make any overwhelming argument that says Gamine was the better horse. It's just my opinion. If they were to face off now going 7-8f, I'm taking Gamine in a runaway. If it's 9f, I'm still taking Gamine but not nearly as confident.