Well, again, to be fair....Perfect Drift was far from a hanger or seconditis type back at that time.
At the end of his 4-year-old season, his career record was 18-9-3-1, and the Foster was in the middle of what was an excellent 4yo season. He toyed with the excellent Congaree later in the year, and won every dirt start that year except for the Breeders Cup Classic....which his connections insisted he would skip (for of all things, the freaking Melbourne Cup) earier in the year. It wasn't until a week or two before the Classic until they finally gave in and ran him.
In that Stephen Foster, the 3rd place finisher, beaten 10 lengths, was Aldebaran. Going into Aldebaran's 2003 season, his career record was 17-3-11-2 (!!)
He had won the Met Mile in his start prior to the '03 Stephen Foster, and came into the race with 3 wins and 1 second exclusively in Grade 1 company, in his four prior starts.
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