My God I wish this whole open competition thing would stop. Let's assume that Rachel and Zenyatta were both going to be in the Beldame. If you have Careless Jewel or Icon Project and you want to have the easiest chance to win, would you face them in the Beldame or go to the JCGC? The JCGC would be against open company but the Beldame would be the tougher race. The point is that open company doesn't automatically mean it's a tougher race. Polish Navy won the Woodward in 1987. Gulch won the Met Mile in 1987. Both of those were against older males. Neither of them were any match for the top 3yos that year (Java Gold, Alysheba, and Bet Twice) so in that case, did beating older mean more than beating your own division? No. Easy Goer could dominate the Whitney, the Woodward, and the JCGC against older but couldn't beat fellow 3yo Sunday Silence. Winning Colors could beat all of the best males in the Kentucky Derby but was beaten in the Las Virgenes by Goodbye Halo. Stop making so much of a big deal about the age and sex of the competition and look instead at the quality of the competition. If Rachel hadn't been in the Woodward, nobody at all would have been talking with reverence about the quality of that field. But since she beats them, it was an outstanding accomplishment? I don't think so.
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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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