STILL WANT TO DEBATE HORSE OF THE YEAR?
 

Hoping Gary West relays his thoughts to the Churchill Downs crew
when he accepts the the well deserved honor due this magnificent Thoroughbred..

Dude, he's not winning horse of the year. 3yo Eclipse, sure, but no way HOY.

Maybe you meant 3 year old champ?

Bricks and Mortar is going to be HOY.

Mitole is worthy of consideration

Might be time to let it go.

Maximum Security had an incredible year and gave his connections the ride of a lifetime.

He started out his career on 12/20/18 in the Maiden Claiming ranks in a race that may well now be regarded as a G2. :D

Even with his romp in the next, they needed another before entering him in the G1 Florida Derby to "take their shot". Many still doubted him, and he rolled in that one to boot, and thus onto the Kentucky Derby.

He ran another monster in the Derby, but missteps were had and we can all argue about it till we are blue in the face. The stewards had to make a call.

In the end, I think it ended up being better for Max, because he obviously wasn't in any shape to continue upon the Triple Crown trail and they took the needed time off. Heck, even with the time off, he was short in the Pegasus at Monmouth in June. He then recouped, and showed his true self in the Haskell again.

And then another setback. Colic. That is nothing to laugh about, and can often put these great animals down. Max was lucky to recover from what I can read, but nonetheless recovered. His next out was a huge question mark, but he rolled along fine and kept to the task to grind out a win. But it wasn't the romping Max we all grew to admire and love.

And now today? With an immense amount of pressure of whether he had been passed by a fellow 3YO, and whether he could fend off elders as well? He was back to the real Max again, and strutted maybe his best stuff yet.

An amazing year with ups and downs and everything in-between. Everybody should be happy how he ran today, not fretting about what could of been or any kind of payback.

Maximum Security is the best 3YO of 2019. 2020 looks promising.

Has there been any talk of retiring him to stud?

^this

But Maximum Security should be divisional 3yo champ...

Agree B&M is well deserving HOY.
Maxie 3YO.

Do they have a category for "flash in the pan" for the Derby winner?

He has as much value at stud as California Chrome had. Which is nothing.

I’d go with Mitole, May have had the two most impressive dirt races this year.

Bricks would be a deserving champion, as well.

Not too sure about his stud value. It looks pretty good to me.

The sire of MAXIMUM SECURITY is NEW YEAR'S DAY who only raced three times in his career and won $1,154,000 which included the Grade 1 Breeders Cup Juvenile in 2013 at Santa Anita.

Sire of NEW YEAR'S DAY is STREET CRY (IRE) who won $5,150,837 in only twelve starts.

How many have you bought in the last 10 years?

Having that sire kills him. His stallion value is very low. It's more lucrative for them to continue racing him as long as he's able.

If he had any potential stud value, they never would have started him for a tag in the first place. His residual value would have been more than the tag he ran for. Every horse that runs has some form of breeding in his pedigree.The West’s bred and stood his sire, they thought so highly of him, they dumped him off to Brazil. This is the only stakes winner from New Year’s Day. No regal breeding or results. Therefore no stud value. The West’s will probably stand him.