All of a sudden the editors from Bloodhorse...
 

Look like the sharpest collection of analytical and thoroughbred handicapping minds ever assembled.

I know this appeared in another thread ... but it truly deserves its own thread...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200.../horse.racing/

Look who is #20.

I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned page 2 of the article.

Decace?

NT

I didn't even notice that typo.

The whole of page two is pretty insipid.

While the article was extremely funny in a very sad way - being Insipid and having an obvious typo in a title are among the kindest things you can possibly say about it.

I do agree on one award they gave out.

Worst Invention: Synthetic tracks.
Although I don't think they were invented this decade....maybe mandated.

Madaglia D' Oro and Street Cry were both clearly better horses and have been better sires than Birdstone .. and they didn't make his list.

However, the fact that anyone would rate race horses on the basis of how well they've done as stallions is extremely sad.

Spectacular Bid was 24-for-24 between the distances of 7fs and 1 1/4 miles - he won 14 Grade 1's - set a slew of track records and not only had ran the fastest ragozin sheet figure on record ... but his fastest rag number stood for over 20 years.

Bid was an absolutely terrible sire. Is that supposed to diminish him as a race horse?

Even though Distorted Humor got obliterated against Skip Away and Formal Gold ... is he somehow better than them as a race horse because he's been a super stallion and they've sired a bunch of turds?

I think this guys top 20 list deserves to win the award for worst invention of the decade.

worst list EVARRRRRR

True.


Did I win the award for best PM ever yesterday??

I agree his list is an embarrassment. I love Funny Cide, but there are horses that are better than him.

I also don't agree with giving the blimp cam an award, since the blimp view has ruined the live race by making it impossible to see where your horse is.

She's nice....but she's no Lexus.

I had a 10 minute conversation with a really cute sandwhich artist today ... and she gave me free food.

I felt loved.

How did her Tuna smell?

To me, it seems like its just a list of the most memorable horses, not necessarily the best runners. The author doesn't make any claims to picking these horses strictly on race performance.

Instead, he's seemingly biased towards horses prominent in the media (of which Funny Cide and Pepper's Pride are good examples). In that respect, his list is fairly decent, if pointless at the same time.

Some more glaring errors:

Saint Liam was unraced at 3
High Chaparral was the only 2-time BC Turf winner (also he dead-heated with a horse named Johan).

I've seen far better work from far less important publications get TomoJay'd in brilliant fashion.

Fair enough. You follow other sports closely, so I'm sure you hold SI to higher standards. Once I saw the flubs I took the whole thing with a grain of salt.

Even if the choices were ridiculous, the commentary was unoffensive, which isn't the case with some of our more prominent turf writers.

Plus, I watched a whole afternoon of TVG so I've pretty much been browbeaten into cattle-like docility for the night.

oops, didn't realize that tripe had more than a page devoted to it...

Tough crowd here at DT. Aside from 19 & 20, I think it's a decent list. And if you stretch "Top Horse" to something beyond "Fastest Horse", even #20 is acceptable.

Any list that puts the Derby-hyped horses below non-household-name older horses like Invasor, Tiznow and Ghostzapper is fine with me, especially one that leaves Bernardini off the list.

Page 2 was also okay, IMO, though Borel's honorable mention was a big stretch, to say the least. I didn't even mind being reminded of my near miss on Closing Argument at 72-1. (it's not a redboard if you don't collect, is it?).

I'd be interested in your own answers to the various categories on page 2, and how far down you'd put the answers in SI's list.

--Dunbar

Bellamy Road deserves the Honorable mention for Best Runaway Performance behind Rachel Alexandra's Kentucky Oaks.

Afleet Alex's Preakness deserves the Holy Mackeral! How Did He Do That Award.

High Chaparral deat heated with Johan? No wonder Mill Ridge wont take my calls.;)