BC Juvie: Arazi or Uncle Mo?

[dellinger63]

Hard IMO to seperate the two. Unc Mo simply dominated the race and when you consider it was the BC Juvi. it's a great performance and not just a good one for sure. I'll give the nod to Azeri right now simply based on quality of the field, still yet to be determined in Mo's case.

BTW Here's another great performance in a BC 2yr old race and one of my favorites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UbbPN3xwnU

[OldDog]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

BTW Here's another great performance in a BC 2yr old race and one of my favorites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UbbPN3xwnU

Awesome.

[classhandicapper]

That's a really good question.

I was there for the Arazi race, but not for Uncle Mo's.

All I can tell you is that when Arazi made his move there was a collective gasp in the stands that I haven't heard many times in 35 years of going to the races.

Numbers people are probably going to prefer Mo because he ran the faster race, but I think Arazi demonstrated a level of acceleration and a sustained run that is pretty rare. I suspect he was capable of running quite a bit faster if required at that time.

I always thought it was shame that he got so hyped after that. Then with the surgery and lack of development at 3, when he didn't fulfill any of the hopes he sort of lost a lot of credit for how great he was at 2.

[miraja2]

Between those two I would probably go with Mo over Arazi. Others that might deserve mention here are War Pass, Street Sense, and Unbridled's Song.

From a speed figure perspective War Pass's BCJ was much better than Arazi's and also better than Uncle Mo's, although obviously War Pass had a style/trip that lent itself to a big fig that day.
Street Sense's winning move was - in my mind - almost as eye-catching as Arazi's, and on the whole I thought Street Sense's overall race was better. He also ran a considerably faster speed figure than Arazi.
I was never a big fan of Unbridled's Song but I might actually rank his BCJ at or very near the top. He overcame a trip that was considerably different than his previous races and prevailed in a long stretch battle against a quality colt while being pinned along the rail the entire time and ran a 103 BSF.

[King Glorious]

This has got to be a trick question. Arazi's performance was not only the best in the history of that race but one of the most impressive I've ever seen in any race.

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

This has got to be a trick question. Arazi's performance was not only the best in the history of that race but one of the most impressive I've ever seen in any race.

Visually, perhaps.

Really though, no one in that race really did fire that day, and besides Bertrando, the field was pretty weak.

My perceived bias aside, I thought Mo's race was better.

Welcome back btw.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

Visually, perhaps.

Really though, no one in that race really did fire that day, and besides Bertrando, the field was pretty weak.

My perceived bias aside, I thought Mo's race was better.

Welcome back btw.

Thank you. I guess time will tell us how good the field was that Mo beat too. I think that after the Arazi race, I felt that there was absolutely no way that he could lose the Derby. I think that during those years, we had a chance to see more of the 2yos and what they could do in stakes competition so we had a better line on them. These days, they race so little and start so late that it's harder to get a line on them. Off the top of my head, it seems like more and more, the horses that turn out to be the best 3yos aren't even known until Dec-Feb. Smarty Jones wasn't considered near the top of his class until Oaklawn. Flower Alley the next year emerged at Oaklawn. Bernardini came into prominence in the spring. Curlin and Big Brown, same thing. Summer Bird. The point I am getting at is that I thought that Arazi's was better but was also against much more accomplished competition which makes it even more impressive.