Quote:
Originally Posted by GMB@BP
Spalding, just out of curiousity what horses would you consider as great this Century here in the u.s.?
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Not enough consistency and definitely not enough of the best of the sophomore crops returning to race at 4 and 5 years of age to witness (or designate) as "great".
There have certainly been several "one offs" that put horses on the path, but none that I can see showed the requisite repeatability. Arrogate's Travers, Candy Ride's Pacific Classic, Frosted's Met Mile, Quality Road briefly at 3 and briefly at 4, Aptitude's Jockey Club Gold Cup, Midnight Lute's Forego, and obviously a handful of Ghostzapper races scattered across 3 racing seasons fit the bill. Tiznow was superb at 3, comfortable versus his elders without much foundation, but injury derailed any further development and he won on sheer guts late at 4.
A couple of 3yos would have been interesting to see develop: Point Given, American Pharoah, Afleet Alex, Bernardini, Smarty Jones, and Empire Maker.
Among those with a bit of consistency, I don't think we're seeing anything from the 3 discussed in this thread (Gun Runner, Arrogate, California Chrome), that we haven't seen already from horses like Mineshaft, Curlin, Congaree, Medaglia D'Oro, and Lemon Drop Kid.
