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Originally Posted by Sightseek
So I guess it's a matter of athleticism vs. talent, particularly in this point. One could easily argue that athleticism is more important...and certainly got the job done more often when the two matched up.
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Not exactly.
The reason why Sunday Silence's athleticism was so important in his victories is because there was no other horse in those races capable of keeping him honest.
All four running were essentially match races. Sunday Silence's jockey simply ignored the rest of the field and focused on Easy Goer throughout. Easy Goer's jockey did the same. The other guys were all running for 3rd money.
Lets add a new wrinkle and say that Dancing Spree and his jockey Angel Coredero was trained by Wayne Lukas instead of Shug.
Dancing Spree won the Grade 1 Suburban Handicap at 1 1/4 miles earlier that year. He was a very good horse, but because he's the stablemate of 1/2 Breeders Cup Classic favorite Easy Goer...Shug instead decided to run him in the 1989 Breeders Cup Sprint instead of the Classic...and Dancing Spree won the BC Sprint closing strongly from mid-pack.
Had Dancing Spree been trained by Lukas, or most any other trainer, he'd have run in the BC Classic. His presence in the race greatly changes the dynamics and makes it an outstanding matchup for Easy Goer.
This is because he was capable of sitting off of Sunday Silence and applying tremendous mid-race pressure to force him to hold his position. Instead of Easy Goer having to be the one forced to move prematurely, it is now SS who has to.
Easy Goer ran a 126 Beyer in defeat in the Breeders Cup Classic, inspite of ducking in towards the gap at the start, being forced to move prematurely, and racing erratically. With a clean break, and with a very classy horse to keep Sunday Silence honest, the Breeders Cup Classic would have been his signature race and I believe he'd have earned a speed figure that was off-the-charts.