Greatest Living Racehorse?

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

I thought your contention was that he was susceptible to pace

No, throughout I made a point of saying that he could be made vulnerable by "other quality speed". I wouldn't count Presidentialaffair amongst those (even if he should be, it wouldn't have mattered in the '04 Iselin--there was nobody behind capable of reaping the benefits).

If Roses In May and St. Liam were capable of giving GZ a battle, then certainly it's possible that another quality horse with a closing style would be a threat to him from behind. He never had to face such a scenario. The Iselin field was a joke, the Woodward was (suprisingly, I might add) a match race, and IMO the Classic was a merry-go-round affair.

GZ ran two races around two turns. One he stalked and one he wired. I can't draw any conclusions about vulnerability from either of those two races especially considering he beyered 128 and 124 respectively. What would make you think he couldn't have sat mid pack or even closed?

Ghostzapper was capable of running 3/4s in 1:08 and change. Typically, those horses don't sit in the back in route races. In his 3 routes he was never more than 1.5 away.

As for his two turn races, they were run under ideal conditions for him. Ironically, the Classic shouldn't have gone his way, and yet it did. It would have been interesting to see him overcome some unfavorable race dynamics routing. You can argue that he did in the Woodward, but at the same time, on the basis of BSF and winning margin, it exposed some chinks in the armor.