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View Full Version : Alinghi...a true champion is retired


dancing brave
12-09-2005, 02:08 AM
Sadly, the great mare from down under has been retired with a tendon injury. What a shame, as we did not get to truely appreciate her greatness. In her homeland, she dominated males with relative ease. Her turn of foot was truley amazing to watch. She surely would have domiated the older filles and mare turf division, probably even the distaff division(very weak at the moment).
I was tired of watching the very average Megahertz, pick her way through fields of grade 3 horses at best and then have Trevor Denman fall out of the tower every time she ran past them. I must admit that Frankel spotted her well.
Frankel knew Alinghi was special when she outworked "Leroy" at the Spa, before her U.S debut. She got pounded at the windows, 4/5 on track and 8/5 on betfair. She turned in a great performance for her first start in many months. Sadly, her next race was over a soft course at Keenland, which she failed to handle like a number of horse at the fall meet.
Let's hope her offspring, have half as much talent as her.

cj
12-09-2005, 03:56 AM
This horse may have been great Down Under, but here she was nothing special. Even her win, which I saw in person, wasn't anything great. She didn't beat much and did it unimpressively, IMO.

KirisClown
12-09-2005, 10:45 AM
This horse may have been great Down Under, but here she was nothing special. Even her win, which I saw in person, wasn't anything great. She didn't beat much and did it unimpressively, IMO.

Totally agree.. after seeing her win in the Ballston Spa, I wondered what all the hype was about. She sat behind a rapid pace and won in ordinary fashion, nothing at all eye catching.

She was probably 4th or 5th best among the turf filly/mares Frankel had this year...

saratoga guy
12-09-2005, 03:09 PM
Wow, you guys are tough. I saw the race and thought she was impressive -- but I guess that's what makes horse racing...

Her specialty was sprinting. Prior to coming to the US she had run three times in 2005 -- once at 5F, three times at 6F. I believe the Ballston Spa was her first try over a mile. Their original goal was an overnight stake at 1M on the turf that was slated for the middle of the Saratoga meet but that didn't fill.

Also, the Ballston Spa was her first race in five months.

And while the field wasn't necessarily BC F/M Turf quality it was a solid G3 race. Every runner in there was a stakes winner.

I thought she handled a new country, new distance, and fairly salty field just the way she should -- especially off of a five month layoff.