Top 10 BC perfomances (last 10 years)

[JJP]

I agree Rock of Gibraltar was probably the best losing performance.

Best ones ever?
Classic- Sunday Silence beating Easy Goer in 89 and Skip Away beating a tremendous field in 1997.

Turf- Manila. Hands down the deepest group of turfers I've ever seen in the BC. Theatrical, the turf champion the following year was in there, as was Dancing Brave, who was supposed to be the best British horse in 25 years. And filly champ/Arlington Million winner Estrapade was in there also.

Mile- Lure and Miesque. Lure had to overcome the 14 hole to win his second and Miesque showed her versatility, winning her first Mile on rock hard ground then taking her second over a bog like surface.

Juvenile- Even though he was a bust as a 3YO, the move Arazi put on in the 1991 Juvenile was monsterous.

Juvenile Fillies- I'll take the recently deceased Countess Diana

Sprint- Going to go with Safely Kept- Dayjur was supposed to be the best sprinter in Europe in years, and he probably would've won the Sprint had he not jumped a shadow. 3rd in the race? None other than Black Tie Affair, who would go on to be Horse of the Year the following year.

F/M Turf- Ouija Board- was dominant in 2004 and while not as sharp in 2005 came fairly close to repeating as Intercontinental was allowed to lope along on an easy uncontested lead.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by JJP

I agree Rock of Gibraltar was probably the best losing performance.

Best ones ever?
Classic- Sunday Silence beating Easy Goer in 89 and Skip Away beating a tremendous field in 1997.

Turf- Manila. Hands down the deepest group of turfers I've ever seen in the BC. Theatrical, the turf champion the following year was in there, as was Dancing Brave, who was supposed to be the best British horse in 25 years. And filly champ/Arlington Million winner Estrapade was in there also.

Mile- Lure and Miesque. Lure had to overcome the 14 hole to win his second and Miesque showed her versatility, winning her first Mile on rock hard ground then taking her second over a bog like surface.

Juvenile- Even though he was a bust as a 3YO, the move Arazi put on in the 1991 Juvenile was monsterous.

Juvenile Fillies- I'll take the recently deceased Countess Diana

Sprint- Going to go with Safely Kept- Dayjur was supposed to be the best sprinter in Europe in years, and he probably would've won the Sprint had he not jumped a shadow. 3rd in the race? None other than Black Tie Affair, who would go on to be Horse of the Year the following year.

F/M Turf- Ouija Board- was dominant in 2004 and while not as sharp in 2005 came fairly close to repeating as Intercontinental was allowed to lope along on an easy uncontested lead.

A couple of things. Dayjur wouldn't " probably " have won, he WOULD have won, as the race was OVER.

Can't name them offhand, though for some reason I think the field was so bad that Deputy Commander took a reasonable amount of money, but the field Skip Away beat in 1997 was not " tremendous ", and may have been much closer to the worst Classic field ever. Perhaps you are thinking of the 1998 field, which was excellent, and Skip Away ran well, but lost.

As for Dancing Brave, and this is no slight to the winner, and others you mentioned, as they were VERY good, but he shipped extemely poorly and looked very bad that day. He simply did not run anything close to his race.

[JJP]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

A couple of things. Dayjur wouldn't " probably " have won, he WOULD have won, as the race was OVER.

Can't name them offhand, though for some reason I think the field was so bad that Deputy Commander took a reasonable amount of money, but the field Skip Away beat in 1997 was not " tremendous ", and may have been much closer to the worst Classic field ever. Perhaps you are thinking of the 1998 field, which was excellent, and Skip Away ran well, but lost.

As for Dancing Brave, and this is no slight to the winner, and others you mentioned, as they were VERY good, but he shipped extemely poorly and looked very bad that day. He simply did not run anything close to his race.

In retrospect, I think you are correct. Actually both 1996 and 1998 were very strong; what happened to all the big fig horses in 1997? Horses like Formal Gold must not've been in the race. In 96, Cigar could only manage third behind Alphabet Soup and Louie Quatorze. In 98 it was Awesome Again-Silver Charm-Swain. It was Swain's dirt debut but he was a very high quality European. Like Dayjur, Swain should've won the 1998 Classic. The 2000 Classic was pretty solid also. Other than Cigar, the 1995 Classic might've been the worst.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by JJP

In retrospect, I think you are correct. Actually both 1996 and 1998 were very strong; what happened to all the big fig horses in 1997? Horses like Formal Gold must not've been in the race. In 96, Cigar could only manage third behind Alphabet Soup and Louie Quatorze. In 98 it was Awesome Again-Silver Charm-Swain. It was Swain's dirt debut but he was a very high quality European. Like Dayjur, Swain should've won the 1998 Classic. The 2000 Classic was pretty solid also. Other than Cigar, the 1995 Classic might've been the worst.

The horses behind Cigar were not strong, though Concern and Soul of the Matter had their days, but I thought the field Black Tie Affair beat in 1991 was pretty weak. Plus, as Black Tie Affair was allowed to waltz along on the lead, the result was not very definitive to say the least.

Formal Gold broke down before the Classic ( after the Woodward I think ).

I guess the 1986 Classic may have been the worst. Precisionist was at the end and really wanted no part of 1 1/4. The track was speed favoring, and thus Turkoman ( who was very good ) was compromised, and Skywalker got the best " on the pace " trip. An unconvincing result.

[Gander]

Skip Away's performance is 1997 is tops on my list, but I am very bias because he'll always be one of my favorite horses of all time and I had a $1,500 win bet on him that day. The field he beat that day wasnt all that dazzling but the way he did it and the fact that he went on to become one of the biggest money earners of all time validates his brilliance.

I was against Ghostzapper at first, simply because he was raced so lightly but looking back I wont hold that against him. He was a spectacular moving machine. May have been one of the best I have ever seen run. His BC Classic performance was nothing more than a public paid workout. He pissed on that field which included another one of my favorites, Pleasantly Perfect, whom would have been second if not for the start and the horrible ride he was given by Bailey. I never thought Roses in May was all that great of a horse. He beat Perfect Drift in the Whitney (big deal, everybody does), and he beat hands down the worst field ever in the Dubai World Cup. As much as I loved Pleasantly Perfect, Ghostzapper was simply a better animal.

Honorable mentions include Artax and Kona Gold, who both beat great fields in their BC Sprint wins.