What Decade?
 

Brought us the best horses?


Maybe I am biased because this is the era that i grew up watching, but I'm going to say the 1980's:

Alysheba, Blushing John, Bold 'n Determined, Capote, Chiefs Crown, Conquistador Cielo, Cozzene, Devil's Bag, Easy Goer, Ferdinand, Forty Niner, Genuine Risk, Glorious Song, Groovy*, Gulch, John Henry, Lady's Secret, Manila, Miesque, Open Mind, Outstandingly, Personal Ensign, Pleasant Colony, Precisionist, Relaxing, Rhythm, Princess Rooney, Risen Star, Safely Kept, Spend a Buck, Steinlen, Sunday Silence, Theatrical, Winning Colors.

*earned beyer speed figures of 133 and 132 for his 1987 6f's of 108.2 and 107.4

pre- figure of course

Quite an impressive list.. and I am sure to have left a few off.

The 1970's had it's share as well.. bold forbes, foolish p, forego, ruffian, slew, secretariat, davona dale, alydar, the bid, ta wee, etal

In my lifetime, the 70's by far.

How can you remember that far back?
You were just a kid ;)

I remember the 70's quite well. Very nice of you to think that I wouldn't!

I saw Secretariat in Saratoga and remember it. I was there for several of Forego's big days at Belmont and my first ever high school road trip, where did I drive? To see the Bid's walkover!

Most of my road trips back then were to SPAC, although after the '88 Whitney we went up the road to see Aerosmith & their opening act...G n'R , boy it was hot that day! :cool:

Well I guess you could count The Bid in the 70s and the 80s....but if you don't.....
Secretariat, Ruffian, Seattle Slew, Spectacular Bid, and Affirmed were all better than any horse to run in the 80s.
I think that makes it pretty easy.

I think it's the seventies, particularly for 3yo's. Look at it this way, Seattle Slew was probably the 4th best 3yo of the decade.

The 70's! But boy the 80's were great too!!

What's unarguable is that the 1980's certainly brought the largest quantity of race horses foaled---and BY FAR.

Several thousand more races horses were foaled in North America in the decade of the 1980's, than were foaled in a 65 year span between 1900 and 1965.

In what is absurd to the point of comedy--when a vote was taken to rate the top 100 race horses of the last century, not a single horse foaled in the decade of the 80's made the top 30!

Of the 1,608,963 horses foaled last century, 463,827 were foaled in the 1980's. In other words, 29% were born in the decade of the 80's. The decade with the fewest horses was the 1910's. They made up just 1% of the horses foaled last century. However, they have a couple horses in the top 30, including the horse who was ranked #1.

It's a guessing game trying to decide which decade brought us the best collection of horses---the 70's would almost certainly win convincingly if a large scale poll was taken.

D.W. Lukus started spending other peoples money and that alone got people started thinking they could breed for a porfit. Some did. The 80's did have alot of horses and few were considered great.

There are some breeding historians/analysts that feel that Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Alydar are the main reasons why the breeding industry started to boom in the 1980's. No telling where the breeding industry would be today without those three horses. And my pick for the best decade would be the 70's.

How far back do you want to go? The 50s: Native Dancer, Tom Fool, Nashua, Swaps, Bold Ruler, Gallant Man... Or how about the 40s: Citation, Coaltown, Whirlaway, Assault, Count Fleet. I might agree with the 70s, but arguements can be made for the decades above.

You make good points. The 70's was still magic, however. We shall never see one like it again.

Not even close for this older man. 70's hands down.

It is hard to argue against the 70's with all the talent in that time, 3 triple crown winners alone in that decade.

I agree, the 70s had some real good ones.

I wasn't born yet and didn't get to see these horses run, but the 70's.

The 70's, probably 5 of the greatest of all time raced during that decade.....

I have to agree that the 70s was the better than the eighties. There we three Triple Crown winners (Spectacular Bid probably should have made it four.)


You left off one of my all time favorite horses from your list. Go For Wand!