Quote:
Originally Posted by King Glorious
No, the thread was about how little buzz there is considering that the winners of those three major preps will all be undefeated if Concert Tour wins. I just threw in the Jeff Ruby thing for fun.
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Well to get back on track, being undefeated in this case means something a lot different from what is implied by using that adjective.
To reiterate, being "undefeated" simply means the horse hasn't been thoroughly tested and/or is lightly raced.
Event of the Year from 1998 is a perfect example. Here's a horse that ran some fast races at a second tier track against small fields, beating 2 stablemates in is first stakes race. He then went to Turfway Park and ended up beating--you guessed it--another horse coming out of a race at Bay Meadows who had been drilled in all his major races at 2. Never tested before the Derby, and despite that had developed a significant knee problem that ultimately kept him out of the race. And yet he was supposed to handle both the pace of horses like Old Trieste, Indian Charlie, Favorite Trick, and Artax and then hold off the stretch runs of horses like Real Quiet, Victory Gallop, and Halory Hunter? I don't think so.
It would have made more sense to suggest the curiously absent Coronado's Quest as a would be Derby winner considering his exploits both before and after the Derby (Wood, Riva Ridge, Dwyer, Haskell, Travers)...
I'm not going to call Essential Quality a titan because he--after a series of easy trips-- had to run down a heretofore sprinter that swapped back to his left lead late first time running around two-turns.
I'm not going to call Rock Your World a titan for having the mettle to outlast a pace rival that has been beaten an average of 19 lengths in each of 3 prep races this year and holding sway late over a one-paced rival that has second-class citizen status in his own barn.
I'm not going to call Concert Tour a titan whose only acid test to date was dueling down the lane with a similarly inexperienced stablemate coming off a 6-month layoff in a sprint who came back to get buried in flat mile race by some of the same horses who participated in what was questioned as "the worst prep in horse racing history".
...by the way, when Event of the Year finally returned (with a new trainer) he got smoked by an Aqueduct allowance horse and a Derby also-ran in his comeback. In his second start, he got drilled by--you can't make this up--another Bay Meadows horse who possibly would have taken it to him in the El Camino Real Derby if he hadn't been injured himself in 1998.
Event of the Year found the winner's circle in the Strub, beating a European money-burner making his first career dirt start and an ex-all weather Euro that had been an also ran in that same '98 Derby. To his credit, Event of the Year did split the great grays Free House and Silver Charm in the '99 Big Cap. Of course, both were retired within 1-2 starts of that race and Event of the Year himself never ran again.