Quote:
Originally Posted by RolloTomasi
I find it very difficult to find these unicorns in the first place. Firstly, the horse has to be a fairly regular winner despite slow speed figures, and secondly it has to step up to the top level and then put up significantly higher figures. Most often, such horses turn out to be pumpkins and simply get exposed.
However, I found one horse who truly fits the Unicorn Model, running only with just enough to win in the majority of its races, and then posting career numbers in its toughest assignments.
That, you no doubt already realize, was Zenyatta, who breeched the 110+ mark in both her BC Classic efforts altering averaging 103 or so in her other races.
Of course, if she had only really been a unicorn she would have won the 2010 Classic by a horn, rather than lost by a head.
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Right. People always talk about these horses that only do what they have to in order to win...yet there are no examples ( except, as you pointed out, one that lost....who's big fig, by the way, was the result of a deep closer taking advantage of a monster pace that collapsed ).
I'll give you a good one...Bernardini. He was actually legitimately fast. But, he won many races so easily that people said he could go faster if he had to. Ultimately, he couldn't ( though his loss in the BC was also the result of a premature move into a fast pace ). He's like the anti-Zenyatta....he actually had a legitimate excuse for losing the BC Classic. He also ran a whole slew of fast races.
Back to chasing unicorns.