Jockey Club Gold Cup

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

You question whether Roses In May would have won any other BC Classics? He would have won most of them. RIM ran good enough that day to win most other years. I'd have to look through the archives, but off the top of my head I would say that the race that RIM ran in the Classic would have won the BC Classic probaby at least 7 times out of the last 10 years, probably even more. He ran huge that day to GZ. He beat the rest of the field by about 3-4 lengths.

With regard to Alysheba, I was a huge Alysheba fan. I bet him in the Derby. Even though I was ahuge fan of his, I will tell you that GZ would have killed Alysheba. It would have been no contest. GZ is in a totally different league. GZ is a freak. Alysheba was a really good horse but GZ is another league.

When you say "GZ would have killed Alysheba" and "GZ is another league", you probably should add "when GZ was able to run".

How fast would GZ have run that BCC if it was HIS 9th race of the year?

My response to statements re GZ is usually, yeah, but what if Alysheba and GZ raced against each other 9 times in a year? Which horse would win more? I think there's a good chance it would have been Alysheba. If so, who's the "greater" horse? Why should greatness be determined by a single race match race? Why not best of 9?

Don't get me wrong. I think GZ was phenomenal, and agree, too, that RIM would have won many a BCC. But when comparing two horses, there's more to it than assuming they each run their best race. Some like Alysheba and Cigar (and Mineshaft!) demonstrate excellence by running at the very top level race after race.

--Dunbar