Java Gold winning the 1987 Travers against the deepest 3yo field I've ever seen. U had:
Alysheba-Derby, Preakness, Blue Grass, Super Derby
Bet Twice-Belmont, Haskell, Fountain of Youth
Temperate Sil-SA Derby, Swaps
Gone West-Withers, Dwyer, Gotham
Gulch-Wood Memorial, Bay Shore, Met Mile
Polish Navy-Jim Dandy, Woodward
Cryptoclearance-Everglades, Pegasus, Florida Derby
The bold races were the grade ones. In addition to these horses having won all of those races, most of them finished 2nd and 3rd in the races they didn't win. It was the most incredible field I've ever seen for a race and Java Gold destroyed them. To this day, I still rank him as one of the two best horses I've seen since I started watching the sport in 1986.
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The real horses of the year (1986-2020)
Manila, Java Gold, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Go for Wand, In Excess, Paseana, Kotashaan, Holy Bull, Cigar, Alphabet Soup, Formal Gold, Skip Away, Artax, Tiznow, Point Given, Azeri, Candy Ride, Smarty Jones, Ghostzapper, Invasor, Curlin, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Goldikova, Havre de Grace, Wise Dan, Wise Dan, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Arrogate, Gun Runner, Accelerate, Maximum Security, Gamine
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