Frankel

[PatCummings]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

It does.

If you study Harbinger's best race (140) VS Frankel's (147) you'll see true absurdity.

Harbinger was undefeated at age 4 and had four Group wins that season -- in his 140 in the King George he won by 11 lengths.

* Second place finisher Cape Blanco was a 5-time Group 1 winner and came here and dominated our turf divison.

* Third place finisher Youmzain (beaten 14+ lengths) made over $5.3 million in earnings and was twice 2nd in the Arc.

* 4th place finisher Daraykana (beaten 15 lengths) was a Group 1 winner and had just been beaten a neck in Group 1 last out.

* 5th place finisher Workforce (Beaten 17 lengths) won the Arc next time out and had won the English Derby earlier in the year.

He also ran 5.41 full seconds faster (or about 33 full lengths) than the winner of the very next race on the same day at the same distance.

This all happened under perfect weather conditions and ground just like Frankel's win.

Both races were tremendously fast -- clearly the two fastest turf races I've ever seen that were clean (had a companion race to compare against on the same card and distance) 147 VS 140 would not jive on an American style figure. It's nonsense fueled by reputation of the winner.

Really not sure the reason for comparing them. Clearly, hype is part of it. Harbinger was far from unbeaten, had a nice small streak going, but nothing crazy. Frankel, on the other hand, has made a relative mockery of his competition on the regular. It's arguable that a relatively hype-less 140 for Harbinger stacks up well to the completely hyped 147.

Let's go farther - I hate these winning streaks. Loathe them. Frankel, Zenyatta, Black Caviar, etc...from a racing side of things, they drive connections into making decisions they wouldn't make had their horses lost by a nose in any of their previous races. Instead, there are some good aspects with press, etc., but the burden of maintaining the streak is what makes them so unbecoming.

They make a big deal about shipping Black Caviar 33 hours...oh the humanity. And what will they likely do right after, win or lose? Take her back home, despite the fact that she's beating the same sops, and it's the middle of winter. Meanwhile, they run the July Cup and Nunthorpe Stakes, two massive international G1 sprint races in the same country where she spent 33 GRUELING hours getting to...