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#22
12-10-2009, 02:57 PM
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#23
12-10-2009, 02:59 PM
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#24
12-10-2009, 03:17 PM
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#25
12-10-2009, 03:53 PM
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#26
12-10-2009, 04:01 PM
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#27
12-10-2009, 04:08 PM
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#28
12-10-2009, 04:18 PM
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Congaree was certainly a very good horse who flashed brilliance at times in his career. He also threw in his share of clunkers. On a list of this nature,the consistency of a horse like Invasor puts him ahead of a horse like Congaree in my book.
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#29
12-10-2009, 04:27 PM
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i was always a congaree fan, but i just think (like you) that invasor was better, or at least more accomplished. but i would certainly put invasor ahead of medaglia d'oro.
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#30
12-10-2009, 04:31 PM
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__________________
  #Grand
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#31
12-10-2009, 04:39 PM
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Way to much love for this horse, Bernardini beats him if Javier knew how to sit chilly.
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#32
12-10-2009, 04:39 PM
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I wasn't a big fan of his going into his 3-year-old season .. but that was more because I didn't like the way he projected as a triple crown series prospect. However, it would be extremely foolish to deny him the honor of decades top 2yo. I think he's one of the easiest choices. He was undefeated, his win in the Champagne was sizzlingly fast. He won the Breeders Cup Juvenile in 1:42.67 - Indian Blessing needed 1:44.73 to soundly defeat Proud Spell that same day. Respectable precocious middle distance horses like Kodiak Kowboy and Tale of Ekati ran 3rd and 4th .. beaten 16.75 lengths and 17.50 lengths .. in an 11 horse field. Just a mind boggling performance against the clock. War Pass's 113 Beyer that day was higher than the 112 Beyer Hard Spun ran for finishing 2nd in the BC Classic that day .. both races used the exact same variant. As for Vindication .. he's in the discussion for the 3rd or 4th spot. Like War Pass, he was also 4-for-4 at two, and with two stakes wins. He won the Grade 3 Ky Cup Juvenile over a terrible field in very slow fashion - but had to overcome some trouble. In the Breeders Cup Juvie ... Vindication had a great trip and needed 1:49.61 to score. By comparison, Storm Flag Flying won the Juv Fillies by a half length in final time of 1:49.60 - Hold That Tiger ran 3rd by 5 lengths to Vindy - but had an extremely tough trip. I think Toccet had a good case to steal the Eclipse from Vindication. He won 4 Graded Stakes as a 2yo at or beyond a mile. He took the Champagne, Laurel Futurity, won the Remsen over Empire Maker, and beat Kafwain in the Hollywood Futurity. He was a complete no show in the BC Juvie though - basically fading after a few furlongs.
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#33
12-10-2009, 04:43 PM
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He wouldn't be totally outrageous though.
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#34
12-10-2009, 04:48 PM
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If I went with all my personal handicapping judgements .. the divisional ratings would look a little different. Therefore, overall accomplisments of the individual horses mattered more in the ratings I posted than I personally think they should.
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#36
12-10-2009, 04:55 PM
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Hes was beat in his only head to head with Rock Hard Ten, I think Saint Liam was 3-5 and Rick 3-1.
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#38
12-10-2009, 05:11 PM
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 He broke a 22+ year old record held by Spectacular Bid for fastest Ragozin figure ever run in his first Cigar Mile win. People thought of him as a sprinter/miler ... but look at the three ten furlong races on his form. Beyers of 116, 116, and 115. A win in the Hollywood Gold Cup trouncing Harlan's Holiday. A near miss 2nd to a two time Big Cap winner in a race where he carried 5lbs more. Pleasantly Perfect was 4th in that race - and would win the BC Classic at the same track and distance later in the year. The other 10f race being a 4th by 2.5 lengths in the Breeders Cup Classic - a race where he hooked Medaglia D' Oro the whole way... and both absolutely ran their eyes out. Not showing on that cut ... is Congaree's 3rd place finish in the Kentucky Derby. IMO, it was clearly the decade's best losing effort by any horse in the Kentucky Derby. That race was absolutley loaded with unbelievable quality speed horses.. and Congaree was the only thing close to that pace who survived. He toyed with Monarchos in his prior start in the Wood .. but he might have been more impressive than Monarchos in defeat in the Derby than he was in easy victory over him in the Wood. Not to knock Invasor ... but he was not a fast horse - only one time did he ever run a figure faster than 113. He beat laughable competition for the most part until the Classic. I think just about every respectable trip handicapper I know thinks Bernardini ran clearly the better race in the BC Classic .. and Bernardini is only rated 4th on the 3yo list.
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#40
12-10-2009, 06:43 PM
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People often forget that Congaree's Wood win was both his stakes debut and just his 4th lifetime start. The 2001 Wood Memorial was also THE ONLY two-turn dirt race on the entire card at AQU that day. That basically made it a nightmare race for figures makers. It's bad enough to only have one race to work with .. it's worse when that one race consists of a fairly small field of developing 3-year-olds. It makes something very easy to do into a total guessing game. In Congaree's prior start, he won an N1X alw race at SA going just 1/5th slower than the mighty Point Given went on the same card and distance. *Congaree wins the Wood by 2.75 lengths and is given a 108 Beyer. His Beyer jumps to a 109 in the Kentucky Derby when he's the lone survivor of a vicious pace and runs a mind bogglingly good race. * Monarchos runs 2nd beaten 2.75 lengths in the Wood and gets a 103 Beyer. In his prior start to the Wood .. he won the Florida Derby by 4.5 lengths overcoming a huge 6 wide turn move at inside friendly GP and gets a 105 Beyer despite the trip. Next out, he easily wins the KY Derby and gets a 116 Beyer after a dream pace setup. * Richly Blendid runs 3rd beaten 10 lengths in the Wood and gets a 92 Beyer. In his previous start he won a Grade 3 stake with a 101 Beyer. In his next start after the Wood he won a Grade 3 with a 97 Beyer. * It's So Simple runs 4th beaten 14 lengths and gets a 85. In his two prior starts to the Wood, he ran a 87 and 95. In his two starts after the Wood, he runs a 91 and 103. * Voodoo runs 5th beaten 15 lengths and gets a 83. In his prior start he ran a 91 - in his first start after the Wood he cut-back to 6fs and ran a 108 Beyer. * Paging ran 6th and last beaten more than 40 lengths and got a 36 Beyer. He ran a 88 in his prior start when 3rd in the Tampa Derby. He ran a 73 and 85 in his next two after the Wood. Basically....to make a long story short... the '01 Wood figure was a VERY bad guess by a figure maker who was put in a very tricky situation. The 108 was absolutely laughable in hindsight ... it should obviously be 5 to 8 points higher. I would assume the figure maker got so conservative because Congaree was a very lightly raced horse that's stretching out to 9fs and trying stakes company for the first time. It takes real guts to slap a 115 next to a 3yo stakes debuter when you have a very shaky variant.
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