Top 5 greatest training achievements in BC history

[cmorioles]

I think the best of all has been overlooked. Neil Drysdale getting Prized to win the 89 Turf as a 3yo in his first career turf start was pretty darn impressive.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

I think the best of all has been overlooked. Neil Drysdale getting Prized to win the 89 Turf as a 3yo in his first career turf start was pretty darn impressive.

Andre Fabre was 2nd with the 3yo filly Sierra Roberta at 25/1 odds in that race. Andre Fabre was 3rd with 52/1 shot Star Lift.

8/1 shot Prized was bred great for the turf ... and had he not been scared away from the Classic by Easy Goer and Sunday Silence ... Andre Fabre would have ended up with a 25/1 over 52/1 cold exacta in that race.

What Andre Fabre did in the Classic back-to-back with Jolypha and Arcangues is really beyond belief.

3rd with a 3yo filly who might have gone off at 150/1 odds or more if not coupled with a pair of solid older Grade 1 winners. And he takes down the Classic the following year at 133/1 odds. Both horses stayed in America for great trainers like Frankel and Dick Mandella afterwards ... and neither one amounted to much on either surface.

[cmorioles]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Andre Fabre was 2nd with the 3yo filly Sierra Roberta at 25/1 odds in that race. Andre Fabre was 3rd with 52/1 shot Star Lift.

8/1 shot Prized was bred great for the turf ... and had he not been scared away from the Classic by Easy Goer and Sunday Silence ... Andre Fabre would have ended up with a 25/1 over 52/1 cold exacta in that race.

What Andre Fabre did in the Classic back-to-back with Jolypha and Arcangues is really beyond belief.

3rd with a 3yo filly who might have gone off at 150/1 odds or more if not coupled with a pair of solid older Grade 1 winners. And he takes down the Classic the following year at 133/1 odds. Both horses stayed in America for great trainers like Frankel and Dick Mandella afterwards ... and neither one amounted to much on either surface.

All of which has absolutely nothing to do with Neil Drysdale. Weak field or not, to win that race first time on turf is pretty freaking impressive, especially considering the horse had been running very well on dirt. Clearly, you don't just throw a horse out in the country's top mile and a half turf race and win it without doing some masterful work in the mornings.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

War Chant was 2nd time turf when he won the Mile for Drysdale as a 3yo.

But again, the horse was regally bred for turf. I'm also pretty sure War Chant was a post time favorite. No doubt both were fine training performances ... but they don't have the "WTF" factor that Fabre had with the first two he ran in the Classic.

I think Prized was a much better turf horse than dirt horse after his BC win as well... but that's more in a time period that's in IC's and Rollo Tomasi's wheelhouse and not mine.