Perhaps the best female to race in the last 5 years?

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by Danzig

and here i figured the distaffers didn't get a lot of wins vs boys because there aren't that many attempts made here. now, overseas, it's far more common..and it seems there are far more celebrated females because of that. goldikova isn't considered special because once a year she ventures a start vs males-unlike other mares who are allowed to be brave once a year. goldikova, ouija board, sunline, makybe diva, etc will be fondly remembered because they repeatedly took on the best in open races, paying their owners and bettors well for taking the chance. before freddy head made history with his three-peating filly, he won twice as a rider on miesque, another great mare who wasn't treated like a hothouse flower.

Danzig,

I am sure you understand that turf and dirt races develop differently.

Turf paces tend to be a lot slower and put a premium on late speed. That tends to bring the horses together because they often don't do any serious and demanding running until the final few furlongs.

As a result of this development issue, the gap between fillies/mares and males is smaller on turf than it is on dirt where the very best horses often run hard from start to finish, exhaust, and put away their inferior rivals.

The gap between the average winning speed figure for males and females on turf tends to be narrower all the way down the class spectrum than it is on dirt further providing objective evidence for what we observe on the track.