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Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
No kidding.
However - the conditions of the Man O' War made it a must avoid for a few horses. Dancing Forever and Einstein would have both had to give 8 pounds away to BOTH Red Rocks and Curlin - and thus both passed the race even though they were in sharp form coming off of Grade 1 wins.
The Monmouth race got a respectable field because of the big purse combined with the fact the favorite hadn't run on the lawn since his maiden race.
With male turf horses Graded Stake status isn't as big a deal as it is with dirt horses or female turf horses. They don't exactly make hot commercial stallion prospects.
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I understand your point. I don't think the MO'W was a viable option -- I agree -- and I don't think it would be a good comparison. Comparisons in hypotheticals? I think comparisons in reality offer enough to argue about, LOL.
All I am saying -- and this is a circular discussion that is coming down to semantics -- is that while they were respectable horses, they certainly weren't what you find in a G1 calender'ed race. Again, I'd love to own any of those horses. It was a respectable field and they added big money to entice horses, and they still had to hustle. If you disagree, that's fine. As I said, I was really trying to point to the commentary that BB did this, Curlin didn't, Curlin got beat by a filly, BB didn't -- that to me is a non-starter.
I would certainly have a discussion about the quality of the two fields -- and those are great discussions; people bringing intelligent points to the table, etc. -- but for someone to argue about BB along these lines . . .
As far as the status, that's a different topic.
Good thread though.
Eric