I'm not ready to throw Silent Name out just yet. I thought his win in the Arcadia was one of the better performances I've seen in the division this year from an American horse. He ran a 1:33 flat that day. In the Shoemaker, he was beaten two by Aragorn but they ran that race in a quick 1:32 4/5 so he went just around 1:33 1/5 that day. Aragorn handled him again in the Read but that was at 9f. At the mile mark that day, he was only a length behind Aragorn and they hit the mile in 1:33 2/5. I know that for many, time means nothing but I always like to see a horse be able to be in the same area over different tracks and here are three different ones where he's gone in the 1:33 1/5 range. I've seen enough horses have no fondness at all for Keeneland's turf and come back and run well elsewhere so I won't hold that against him. Of course, Aragorn has gone sub 1:33 on each of the tracks that Silent Name did. I just think that if anyone likes Aragorn here, Silent Name is not far behind him, and they are certainly closer than the 4/1 to 30/1 difference Watchmaker has them at in the DRF.
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The real horses of the year (1986-2020)
Manila, Java Gold, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Go for Wand, In Excess, Paseana, Kotashaan, Holy Bull, Cigar, Alphabet Soup, Formal Gold, Skip Away, Artax, Tiznow, Point Given, Azeri, Candy Ride, Smarty Jones, Ghostzapper, Invasor, Curlin, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Goldikova, Havre de Grace, Wise Dan, Wise Dan, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Arrogate, Gun Runner, Accelerate, Maximum Security, Gamine
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