3 year old Champion

[gamblin4ever]

If I had a vote, it would be Medina Spirit.

1) Even though he beat Medina Spirit twice this year, Life is Good hasn't raced past 1 1/16 mile. Didn't race in any of the classics.

2) Medina Spirit beat EQ in 2 races that they were both in.

3) The only thing EQ has going for him is he raced all year compared to the other 2.

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by gamblin4ever

3) The only thing EQ has going for him is he raced all year compared to the other 2.

Essential Quality had the best overall record (5 for 7), won at 4 different distances (8.5f, 9f, 10f, 12f) at 4 different racetracks (also won on an off track), beat the Preakness winner twice, was a multiple Grade 1 winner, and won 2 classics (Belmont, Travers). He started only in Graded stakes the entire year and was unbeaten in all starts below the Grade 1 level (2 Grade 2s and a Grade 3). He did not fail the post race tests in any of his victories.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Essential Quality had the best overall record (5 for 7), won at 4 different distances (8.5f, 9f, 10f, 12f) at 4 different racetracks (also won on an off track), beat the Preakness winner twice, was a multiple Grade 1 winner, and won 2 classics (Belmont, Travers). He started only in Graded stakes the entire year and was unbeaten in all starts below the Grade 1 level (2 Grade 2s and a Grade 3). He did not fail the post race tests in any of his victories.

What were the two biggest tests of the year for him? The two races he was trained and set to peak in? What happened in both of those races? Sure, the Derby result was questioned because of the drug issue and because of the trips both horses had. People argued that Essential Quality was probably best even in defeat. Myself among them. Going into the Classic, I had Essential Quality clearly ahead of him. We can't, however, pretend that the Classic didn't happen. A 1-0 advantage, maybe even a 2-1 advantage, I can see an argument for the second horse. 2-0 is difficult for me. I know you'll tear it apart but it reminds me of the Sunday Silence/Easy Goer debate. After the Belmont, despite being down 1-2, I felt that Easy Goer was the better horse. The next few months saw Sunday Silence losing to Prized and winning the Super Derby while Easy Goer was out there winning the best races in the country, beating older horses, etc, and led to Easy Goer being favored in the Classic. We know what happened next.

If Essential Quality and Medina Spirit were to face each other again, I'd more than likely pick Essential Quality again because I still feel like he's probably the better horse but with voting having to be done based on the current results, it's gotta be Medina Spirit over Essential Quality.

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

What were the two biggest tests of the year for him?

Did he start in only 2 big races all year? I suppose since Life is Good fits that bill...

The two races he was trained and set to peak in?

I don't know if his trainer would have been dumb enough to "really train" him for only 2 races. Especially since on pedigree his ideal race was always going to be the Belmont Stakes. Maybe that's why he lost the BC Classic. Too many hard races while the other candidates were sprinting, laid up at Los Al, having surgery, or running in listed stakes. Letruska is still going to be champion older mare despite her BC effort.

Sure, the Derby result was questioned because of the drug issue and because of the trips both horses had. People argued that Essential Quality was probably best even in defeat. Myself among them.

You just stated the case here. And the drug issue doesn't go away just because you recognize it happened.

Going into the Classic, I had Essential Quality clearly ahead of him. We can't, however, pretend that the Classic didn't happen. A 1-0 advantage, maybe even a 2-1 advantage, I can see an argument for the second horse. 2-0 is difficult for me. I know you'll tear it apart but it reminds me of the Sunday Silence/Easy Goer debate. After the Belmont, despite being down 1-2, I felt that Easy Goer was the better horse. The next few months saw Sunday Silence losing to Prized and winning the Super Derby while Easy Goer was out there winning the best races in the country, beating older horses, etc, and led to Easy Goer being favored in the Classic. We know what happened next.

A strict head-to-head is silly, especially since both horses got blitzed by an older horse. We can base it on beaten rivals, too. You mention Prized, who beat Sunday Silence by 3/4s of a length in the Swaps. Well, Easy Goer beat Prized by about 20 lengths in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Essential Quality was consistently better than Rock Your World, Midnight Bourbon, and Hot Rod Charlie all year long. Medina Spirit was better than those horses some of the time (depending on his physical condition and treatment regimen).

Again, Medina Spirit failed his Derby post-race test; not gonna just chalk up an easy "1" for him for that race.

If Essential Quality and Medina Spirit were to face each other again, I'd more than likely pick Essential Quality again because I still feel like he's probably the better horse but with voting having to be done based on the current results, it's gotta be Medina Spirit over Essential Quality.

I wouldn't; Essential Quality was always being trained and campaigned like a horse that was going to be retired at the end of his 3yo year. Who knows what they are going to do with Medina Spirit. He was a bench warmer in his barn until mid-April (which is why he made 9 starts instead of the usual 6 from that barn).

[King Glorious]

You know damn well that trainers set up training and racing schedules to have their horses peak at certain times. Do not try to insult anyone's intelligence by insinuating that he had him as cranked up and ready to toll in the Jim Dandy as he did in the Classic. When he sent him out in the Southwest Stakes, you think the screws were as tight as they were for the Derby? Stop it. You know what I mean when I said his two biggest tests were the Derby and the BC Classic. Those were the two where he was trained to be at his best.

[freddymo]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

You know damn well that trainers set up training and racing schedules to have their horses peak at certain times. Do not try to insult anyone's intelligence by insinuating that he had him as cranked up and ready to toll in the Jim Dandy as he did in the Classic. When he sent him out in the Southwest Stakes, you think the screws were as tight as they were for the Derby? Stop it. You know what I mean when I said his two biggest tests were the Derby and the BC Classic. Those were the two where he was trained to be at his best.

Now a trainer's intention is a data point in Eclipse Voting? Who knew?

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

You know damn well that trainers set up training and racing schedules to have their horses peak at certain times. Do not try to insult anyone's intelligence by insinuating that he had him as cranked up and ready to toll in the Jim Dandy as he did in the Classic. When he sent him out in the Southwest Stakes, you think the screws were as tight as they were for the Derby? Stop it. You know what I mean when I said his two biggest tests were the Derby and the BC Classic. Those were the two where he was trained to be at his best.

I like this, you downplay the significance of the Belmont Stakes and Travers and focus only on the Southwest and Jim Dandy? Laughable...and disingenuous.

We don't know which races (if any) Cox altered the horse's training schedule for specifically. I could believe that he "tightened the screws" the most for the Belmont, not only because he was expected to win based on his pedigree (Tapit), but also because of the 12 furlong distance and the fact that he lost the Derby (and thus had to win in order to be a classic winner). And I could believe he also cranked him up for the Travers, too (arguably he did, simply because he put an extra race into him by running in the Jim Dandy--an insignificant race in your opinion apparently) because a win in that race that would likely cement him the 3yo Eclipse.

Tons of horses are past their peak in BC (Letruska, Riboletta, Fusaichi Pegasus, Forty Niner, Aptitude, Best Pal, etc.); that's why the whole thing fails as a "Championship" event.

But whatever, I'm not campaigning for one horse or the other. I only responded because someone posted that Essential Quality had little going for him compared to the other two.

I can see Medina Spirit winning the Eclipse what with his ho-hum spring campaign, his unexpected Derby wire job, his failed post-race Derby test, his pumpkin-like effort in the Preakness 2 weeks later, his exile to Los Alamitos, his thrilling comeback at Del Mar in a listed stakes in a 4-horse field, his strategic "post 9" scratch from the Penn Derby when Baffert realized that he was running into a buzzsaw in Hot Rod Charlie, and the all important win against older horses when he beat the Iowa Derby winner Stilleto Boy (a 3yo) by a pole in a race at Santa Anita named for a horse owned by the owner of Santa Anita that never started at Santa Anita, all capped off by a futile effort in defeat in the BC despite having the benefit of that summer cakewalk campaign.

[King Glorious]

Ok. If you want to convince yourself that the Belmont is the race trainers are shooting for and not the Derby, I can’t stop you. If you think the BC Classic was an afterthought, a sort of “well, he’s bouncing off the walls so we might as well enter him somewhere to get the edge off him” kind of race since he had already won the Travers, which was his real main objective, go ahead.