Yep, hard to believe Azeri had the career she had under those 2 and this is when Lukas was downright awful also.

That was my guess except the worse part threw me off.

Yeah it might be the contrarian view but I actually thought Lukas improved her abit if we are to use beyers as the definitive gauge, but we just had that discussion...

of course her Beyers went up once she started racing on the east coast :rolleyes:

Lukas gave Azeri a chance to show everyone, and I was a non-believer before he got her, just how good she really was.

Horses often show more in defeat than they do in victory. Lukas gave her a chance to lose. Compare it to testing in college, where the tests are designed so that nobody can get a perfect score, and the scores are graded on a curve. You learn little about a student's true capabilities when they get a perfect score. One person's 100 is not the same as another's per se.

If you put Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra together on the racetrack, especially in a situation that is reasonably fair for both, you will learn much more about them than we did this past Saturday. In all likelihood, both will emerge with their reputations furthered.

Good post, I hate when the best horses avoid each other, I mean shouldnt they have a championship day at the end of the year or something, the sport should think about doing that, fans would be happy as well.

of course Azeri proved she was good, when she got to NYRA of course :D

She certainly proved it more there than she did at Churchill.

I have no clue why a trainer would think a front running router with high cruising speed would be good at sprinting, certainly that goes against my theory on cutbacks.

She certainly ran her best races around two turns and given a chance she beat the mighty Sightseek and ran an awesome race in the Personal Ensign.

She got thrashed in her next start too.

NT

I remember, it was the Met Mile, one turn sprint as well. She took some stupid money though.

And the one after that too...she finished last of 4 in the Ogden Phipps.

NT

Sightseek could run a little...

Come on man ... that's bologna.

All Lukas did was put her in a couple of very silly spots... silly spots in which she did not run well. That and he was based in the East and LDS in the West.

She had that great 1:08 and change debut at 17/1 odds - and than she ran 15 straight triple digit Beyers before being removed from LDS.

I know she beat almost nothing ... but she came to the Apple Blossom twice for LDS and Arlington for the BC Distaff - and gave anything in the east a chance to meet her in between.

She gave those double digit weight swings away to a few ok horses and all as well.

It was painfully obvious how good Azeri was before Lukas got her ... and she was just about the same horse for him minus her bad effort in the Phipps.

My problem with Azeri is that she was overrated to the point of sheer annoyance by TVG when she raced in the West for De Soreux.

When Lukas put her in silly spots like the Met and Breeders Cup Classic ... you didn't so much notice that she had the speed of Ruffian, the class of Lady's Secret, and the heart of Personal Ensign ... did you?

I thought she ran well in the BCC - it was a more interesting spot than putting her in the Distaff.

Yeah - it was very shrwed placement.

She was 5th, got beat about 10 lengths at 15/1 odds, with a 109 Beyer.

That year's Distaff was won by Ashado with a 102.

It all depends on what you want to see - a horse put into challenging spots or put in spots where they could win with ridiculous ease.

Obviously I love Sightseek, but she didn't exactly have the most interesting campaign.

And nobody would have cared about her winning the Distaff for a second time. Whether she raced there or not didn't change the fact that we already knew she was the best older female in the country. The greats become the greats because they are always taking on new challenges, not handling the same ones over and over.

I only wish that Azeri could have been tried in some of those spots in 2003 instead of having to wait another year. As good as she was in 2004, I thought she was better in 2003.

If you're trying to argue that a 5th place finish in the Classic did more for Azeri's legacy than winning a 2nd Distaff would have, I couldn't possibly disagree more. She finished 5th, it's not like she contended, even if it was one of the toughest Classic fields ever. I agree with you in general when it comes to trying bold things with exceptionally talented female horses, but this was not a case where Azeri had nothing left to prove. A 2nd Distaff would have been another feather in her cap, or at least more of one than a 5th in the Classic.

I also wasn't certain that she was the best female in the country at that time. She traded decisions with Sightseek (who was a Belmont horse for course) but neither had proven they were decidedly better than the other.

She was more than a Belmont horse, watch her Rampart, Go For Wand the year earlier and Humana Distaff!