[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

112, 111 and 110 beyers are subpar? Interesting...Your understanding of the game continues to shine. Yes, the real Curlin steroids or not proved he was the best dirt horse in training last year and this. He won the Dubai World Cup, Stephan Foster, Whitney, Jockey Club Gold Cup and was second to a former BC winner in his first and only turf start this year, a year you admit he was steroid free. He also, for all the flack he took ran in the BC on a surface foreign to him that favors horses that run on the turf. He was 4th. What a fraud. So, I ask again, what more could he have done this year? Run faster. I laughed.

Relatively speaking, yes they are. Obviously, they were among the best of this year and he was consistent with them. But when the talk comes to him being among the best of the decade or best of the past 25 years (though I know you personally don't subscribe to that), then yes, those numbers are subpar to what the horses that actually deserve to be in those conversations put up. And I still argue that when you have a horse that's put up a 111 as a 3yo in his fifth career start and a 114 and 119 later that same year, it's not expecting too much to see improvement from a maturing 4yo with more experience. Asmussen always talked about how he was physically better and mentally better but his speed figures were consistently lower than what he was able to reach last year. This is not opinion. Par is relative and I believe his were subpar based on what we have seen from him in the past and the natural progression that we expected to see this year. But they were above par for the 2008 older male division which is why he was able to win the races he did.