Getting back to Xtra Heat ... without a doubt the one race she ran that impressed me the most was not any of her 25 stakes wins .. nor was it the 2nd place finish against a brutally tough group of males in the BC Sprint.
For me - It was her defeat in the Test.
She hooked a super expensive 2yo sales horse in Harmony Lodge - a horse who just missed a track record going 5.5f at Saratoga in her career debut.
The two of them battled through a 44 flat over a racetrack that - on that day - such a fraction was impossible to believe going 7fs.
Harmony Lodge ran five times at Saratoga in her career - and her best performance might not be the day she won her Grade 1 - it might not be the day she just missed a really old track record in her debut - it was probably the day she got beat 39 lengths and ran a 21 Beyer figure .. after running a pace figure that was about a 150. She showed her true raw speed that day.
To give you an even better idea about how killer that pace was in the Test .. Secret Liason was one of the fastest 3yo filly sprinters in speed crazy So. Cal - and she couldn't even sniff that pace from 3rd. The pace causing her to get beat 50+ lengths and run a -0 Beyer.
For an even better idea of how fast the pace was in the Test .. future champion sprinter speedball Orientate broke his maiden going 6f that day. He was loose on the lead going 6f through a 45 2/5th half .. on my pace numbers for Saratoga .. he went 50 points slower to the half than the Test pacesetter!
I think for a 3yo filly to survive the pace and quality pressure that Xtra Heat did that day - fight Victory Ride as hard as she did when she came to her - and still run a triple digit final time figure at 7fs .. it was a remarkable effort. Probably more remarkable than stringing together 3 straight Beyers in the 117-to-120 range like she did right after that.