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Originally Posted by Calzone Lord
Gary Stevens was the worst at that. He had a new 'best horse I ever rode' every season.
Kent Desormeaux is pretty close as well. He was on a lot of good horses including Formal Gold in his prime -- and after the Preakness he called Big Brown the best he ever rode.
Mike Smith called Zenyatta the best he ever rode -- and that included Skip Away, Cigar, and Holy Bull among others.
Can anyone imagine Affirmed getting beat by 7 or more lengths at Long Acres on 3 different occasions? Or how about Affirmed getting caught late at Los Alimotis. Or, how about Affirmed finishing 5th at Turf Paradise.
I don't fault anyone for thinking Chinook Pass was one of the fastest horses ever for a half mile or so and he was definitely a great performer on a few occasions -- but he was a runoff and had a lot of bad races on his form.
I have no idea who the greatest sprinter ever was. Dr. Fager was pretty amazing sprinting. There are a lot of great sprinters throughout history starting with Roseben and ending with horses like Kona Gold and Midnight Lute.
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He may not have been the best. But my all time favorite sprinter is Dancing In Silks
Hey. Here's something that might be fun. The interview I did with Pincay was in 2003 for a radio piece I did for his 50th birthday.
In that conversation he spoke of the 4 or 5 greatest horses he ever rode. Can you guess who they were? One caught me completely off guard.
Added note: Laffit is going to be a guest this year at the Handicapping Seminar at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa. He'll be appearing alongside Russell Baze on Sat. July 28. Over 21,000 wins sitting on one stage in Wine Country. The show is hosted by Frank Miramahdi and Michael Patricks. Pretty cool huh?