Quote:
Originally Posted by Calzone Lord
Thanks.
Easy Goer and Sunday Silence are unquestionably two of the top ten horses to race during my entire lifetime.
I still remember the opening segment to the 1989 Belmont Stakes narrated by Jim McKay. It went something sort of like this ...
Sunday Silence really did have that magical 'beat the odds' element to him.
I'll Have Another certainly does to -- albeit to a less dramatic extent. He's never been the favorite in a race -- he also sold cheaply twice at auction (Sunday Silence RNA'd at a 2yo sale when his bidding price failed to reach 50K)
Bodemeister is an extremely exciting horse ... especially for a 3-year-old finding form at the right time.
I don't think I'll ever see a horse again who is Easy Goer type exciting. He was like the perfect horse from his breeding, to his performances and figures, to his visual qualities and the way he would finish through the stretch. I believe he ran the 3rd worst speed figure of his entire life in the Kentucky Derby -- and still finished 2nd.
If you draw a line through his career debut, and his two races over a muddy Churchill Downs track, he always fired incredibly sensational races and was such a great performer. He swept the three races at age 3 that Secreatariat failed to win -- Wood Memorial, Whitney Handicap, and Woodward -- he shaved a full second off of Big Red's Gotham Stakes record time, he ran the 2nd fastest Belmont in history behind only Big Red, and he also won the Travers in sensational time. Sunday Silence was the only horse to beat him in a very tough 3yo campaign that saw him dance every dance.
If Bodemeister doesn't win ... I hope he at least runs his race and I'll Have Another finds something that I really don't think he has to beat him. He wouldn't be the first Derby winner to jump up and pop an unexpected great performance in the Preakness ... Smarty Jones, Funny Cide, and Charismatic all did recently. I even think War Emblem's Preakness win was a better performance than his Derby win.
Anyway -- if Bodemeister fires and doesn't crush this field as I expect -- it would be nice to see this budding rivalry countinue all season. Even if they don't deserve to be compared with Easy Goer and Sunday Silence ... Bodemeister has ton of raw talent, excitement, and great pedigree like EG did. And I'll Have Another has that underdog angle like SS always did.
Sunday Silence, of course, wasn't the favorite in the San Felipe. Wasn't the favorite in the SA Derby. Wasn't the favorite in the Ky Derby. Wasn't the favorite in the Preakness. Wasn't the favorite in the Breeders Cup Classic ... and he won them all.
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If I remember that segment correctly, the music accompanying the Preakness highlights was from U2's Where The Streets Have No Name.
The connections of Sunday Silence and Easy Goer offered interesting contrasts. You had the Hancock's black sheep and the cool Bald Eagle pitted against Eastern racing royalty and the fiery southerner McGaughey. There was also a bit of bad blood between Arthur Hancock and Ogden Phipps stretching back to when Seth Hancock was chosen to take over the reins of Claiborne. Hancock said in an interview after the Derby that his dream was to run Claiborne and Phipps' dream was to win the Derby, so Phipps had killed his dream and he had killed the Phipps's dream.
I have a soft sport for fleet routers like Bodemeister who head to the front and dare you to catch them. It will be interesting to see the cat-and-mouse game tomorrow between Guiterrez and Rosario as to who will engage Bodemeister first.