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Originally Posted by Dunbar
I put "*"'s by my choices. Toughness and consistency are often undervalued, IMO. I consider Cigar great. On Ghostzapper's best day, he would almost certainly have beaten Cigar by open lengths. But which horse would have won a best-of-11 series over the course of a year? I'd probably bet on Cigar.
--Dunbar
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I hear ya - but I never really understood why almost everyone seems to most associate Cigar with the toughness and consistentcy traits instead of Skip Away... considering they were both from about the same time period.
I always thought Skip Away was clear cut the toughest and most consistant SOB of the 90's.
Skip Away was stakes placed four times at age 2 - twice just missing in Graded Stakes races.
At age 3, he won the Blue Grass by 6 lengths in his final Ky Derby prep, the eventual Preakness winner finished 2nd. The eventual Belmont winner finished 3rd.
He ran in all 3 triple crown races .. as well as the Ohio Derby, Haskell, Travers, and Woodbine Million, before defeating the older Cigar in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
At age 4, he made 11 starts - 10 times running a Beyer of 112 or better - 9 times running a 115 or better and capped off the season with a 6 length Breeders Cup Classic win.
At age 5, he won 7 of his 9 starts - 5 of which at the Grade 1 level. Carried as much as 131 pounds and raced in all the different major regions of the country.
Cigar was extremely tough and consistant ... but it lasted a little less than 2 years... and he certainly didn't see anything like the brilliant level of competition Skip Away had to put up with throughout his entire career.