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Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
* The combination of strong early speed while having the ability to rate if need be always allowed him to be placed in a better tactical position than Easy Goer through the early and middle stages. It also forced Day to use Easy Goer prematurely in order to put him in the race prior to the far turn.
* The ability to accelerate through the far turn. While Easy Goer seemed to struggle with turns at tracks like Gulfstream, Pimlico, and Churchill Downs - Sunday Silence thrived through that stage of the race.
* Professionalism through the stretch. Neither horse was really all that professional through the stretch, and both literally gave races away in the stretch before. However, Easy Goer's most dominant portion of the race was the stretch run, so it was much more important that he run professionally.
* Ability to handle all surfaces. Sunday Silence won the Derby in the mud. While he never raced on turf, his sire was a Grade 1 winner on turf, his mother was claimed for $32,000 and became a multiple Graded Stakes winning turf horse, he himself was a great sire of turf horses. I think it's safe to assume Sunday Silence would have handled the turf well also. Easy Goer ran two mediocre races over muddy Churchill Downs tracks, when 2nd in the Ky Derby and 2nd in the BC Juvie.
Easy Goer was the better horse on speed figures...routinely running Beyers in the 120-to-126 range. He was just a bad match-up for Sunday Silence though. And, Sunday Silence also happened to be a spectacular speed figure horse himself...though not quite as fast as Easy Goer was.
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i especially agree with your 2nd and 4th points. sunday silence was a monster on the far turn and it didn't seem to matter what track he was running on. i've no doubt that he would've been a superstar on the turf as well.