Quote:
Originally Posted by Spalding No!
My point was that Accelerate suddenly reached the upper echelon when the there was no one left in the older horse division.
Arrogate got pulled in because his "peak" period was bookended by defeats at the hands of Accelerate (and several others). Presumably that meant that Accelerate was never far behind (or not behind at all) Arrogate in terms of ability.
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Got you.
Not that you care.
I prefer to look at qualitative things. I look at who's beating who, by how much, how consistently, with what trip, with what race flow, given how the track was playing. I especially like to focus on how horses did when the conditions were tough. The best ones have more in reserve and call upon it to get the job done when things are tougher. The cheaper ones wilt. I look at figures also, but I'm not very literal about them. Too many complexities, differences of opinion, and errors. Fast, average and slow for the class is good enough for me.
IMO, peak Accelerate was not close to peak peak Arrogate, but I don't think Accelerate was a bum even though the older horse division in CA was not very strong last year. On the flip side, his accomplishments probably exceeded his ability for that reason.