Quote:
Originally Posted by Perrault Robbed
The difficulty of attempting the move from America to overseas to capture the mythical title can best be captured by the 5 years old campaign of Aaron Jones's Lemhi Gold. Lemhi Gold was one of the best dual threat handicap horses in the last 50 years of west coast racing. If ever a horse looked like the goods to go overseas and compete with the best on turf, it was Lemhi Gold. He absolutely destroyed Perrault in the 82 San Juan Cap when that was the turf race to win on the West Coast. He went back east that year and won the Sword Dancer. Then he ran on the dirt and won the Marlboro and the Jockey Club, both in handily fashion.
He was sent over to France to prepare for the Arc. He ran last in his frist prep and fourth in his second. He went over to England for the King George and ran eighth. They aborted the mission and retired him.
That is how hard it is to go over the pond and deal with the europeans on, literally, their turf. I don't believe we've ever had a horse try since and don't know if we will ever see an owner with the testicle fortitude of Jones to try such a feat again.
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I think one of those fourstars something NY horses shipped over to Europe and one a Classic race there. However, he was not much on dirt, and one horse is a pretty small sample size.
Last I heard was that Lemhi Gold was in Croatia. Vaguely Noble's were not very popular stallions.
Interco was a pretty nice horse on both surfaces.