Non-winners of an Eclipse or Championship

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

It will always kill me that he was 1-9 to be HOY and then ended up getting nothing.

Good discussion. I'll just add that even if Java Gold had won the JCGC at 1-9, I don't think HOY was a "gimme". If the BC Classic finish line was 10 feet further, Alysheba would have won it and I don't think a Derby-Preakness-BCC winner is going to be denied HOY.

You might counter that reasoning by saying you were assuming Java Gold wins the 1-9 race but everything else stays the same. But everything else could have been affected by a differently run JCGC. Maybe the BCC lineup would have been affected. It wouldn't take much of a perturbation to have reversed the finish of Alysheba and Ferdinand.

I agree with both you and BTW that thinking of those great horses makes the state of racing today all the sadder.

--Dunbar