Best Victory over Males

[RockHardTen1985]

Originally Posted by Dahoss

Hard Spun was a monster going 12 furlongs.

Unlucky he came around in that year. He was a total monster.
I think his last 2 races that year really proved he was special. The trip in the Belmont was a joke, no telling what could have been. One could argue he was best in the Derby.

[Indian Charlie]

That crop freaking sucked Joey.

Relative to most recent years however, I can see why you might be confused and say something like Hard Spun was unlucky to come along in that crop.

[RockHardTen1985]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

That crop freaking sucked Joey.

Relative to most recent years however, I can see why you might be confused and say something like Hard Spun was unlucky to come along in that crop.

Im not confused and I am comparing to the recent crops. Super Saver and MTB winning Derby, and those big 3 came along in the same year. Thats all Im saying.

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by RockHardTen1985

Im not confused and I am comparing to the recent crops. Super Saver and MTB winning Derby, and those big 3 came along in the same year. Thats all Im saying.

The crop that MTB was in was actually pretty decent, but was decimated by injuries.

I think it's far from a certainty that Hard Spun would have fared that well in that year had that crop stayed sound.

[RockHardTen1985]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

The crop that MTB was in was actually pretty decent, but was decimated by injuries.

I think it's far from a certainty that Hard Spun would have fared that well in that year had that crop stayed sound.

I stongly disagree with this. Hard Spun showed in the BC he loved the slop, I think he wins that Derby fairly easily. If I remember correctly Fresian Fires what the chalk and I had POTN as my lone A. Big Drama was a sprinter period, Summer Bird did not get really good until the Travers IMO. Dunkirk ran 1 good race. And like you said the 2 big horses got hurt.

[King Glorious]

Hands down Rags to Riches for me. I know people say that Curlin was tired from the first two legs but still, he was Curlin. What made it even more impressive to me in retrospect is that Curlin went on to win the JCGC and BC Classic and be named HOY. Not only did Rags beat him but she beat him in a battle. No getting out front and lasting. No catching horses that tired from the pace. The two of them hooked up and she outran him. In terms of quality of competition faced, I'd take this race over all three of Rachel's against the boys. Zenyatta's was good but it wasn't great to me. Even though we know grass horses tend to run well on synthetics, it's not a given that all do and Rip Van Winkle didn't. That left a pretty average group of horses. Twice Over was no great thing. Gio Ponti, for all that he's done, has never won a race that wasn't on grass. Summer Bird was not a bad horse but he was also realistically probably no better than the 5th or 6th best 3yo (if all were healthy) and he was also not on his preferred surface.

1-Rags
2-Rachel's Preakness
3-Rachel's Haskell
4-Zenyatta
5-Rachel's Woodward

PS-I'd take Winning Colors' Derby and Preakness over all of them.

[Sightseek]

Welcome back Kingie!

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by RockHardTen1985

Unlucky he came around in that year. He was a total monster.
I think his last 2 races that year really proved he was special. The trip in the Belmont was a joke, no telling what could have been. One could argue he was best in the Derby.

He was okay, but hardly a monster. Horse racing actually existed before 2001. Instead of spending countless hours posting gibberish you should look into some of it.