Best Race You've Seen In Person

[FATPIANO]

1978 JCGP Exceller, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, a blast from the past

[horseofcourse]

1979 Ohio Derby...Smarten set a track record that still stands today at venerable junk heap T-down! Of course that was my only visit to a thoroughbred track!! For some reason talked my dad into taking me for my 13th birthday and he did...increased my birthday payroll just a tiny bit with my 10 dollar win bet on Smarten...(low odds though!) Good horse, destroyed the field!! Seen lots of good quarter horse races, but those don't count.

[2Hot4TV]

John Henry winning the Goodwood at Santa Anita before he was a racing God. He payed 7/2 that day.

[ceejay]

Conquistador Cielo's ('82) Belmont wire job, laying off 6 days from a track record in the MET Mile!

[SniperSB23]

Apparently I posted in the wrong thread earlier. The best races I've seen in person are probably the 2005 and 2006 Whitneys.

[-BT-]

1. 1973 Secretariat & Sham- my first Derby
2. 1997 Preakness- Silver Charm, Free House & Captaim Bodgit
3. 1966 Scarborough Downs- cheap claimers in Maine, but a triple dead heat for win

[disappearingdan_akaplaya]

cigar tying the streak at arlington is my obvious choice!!!!!! it was the first year i started going to the track and that, horse and race and arlington itself all in that same day made me fall in love with this game!

[Samarta]

Not necessarily the best race from a competition stand point, but for sheer atmosphere, it was Smarty Jones in the Preakness....

Best race....'06 Azeri Breeders Cup....Round Pond vs Happy Ticket from gate to wire....was a great race.

[pick4]

I was at the 78 Travers but I don't remember it although I vividly remember knowing Affirmed was a champion while I watched his last few races on the Channel 9 Frank Wright show.

The two most important races I've seen in person were the 1994 Travers where there was a cause for Concern but he held him off. The other was the 1997 Travers when Deputy Commander nosed out Behrens.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by pick4

I was at the 78 Travers but I don't remember it although I vividly remember knowing Affirmed was a champion while I watched his last few races on the Channel 9 Frank Wright show.

The two most important races I've seen in person were the 1994 Travers where there was a cause for Concern but he held him off. The other was the 1997 Travers when Deputy Commander nosed out Behrens.

That 1997 Travers was an excellent stretch duel. Behrens lost a couple tough ones in the lane at Saratoga.

[Thunder Gulch]

Just thought of another..Kona Gold's track record sprint in the BC at Churchill had the crowd buzzing afterwards.

[randallscott35]

Val Royal's BC Mile is honorable mention. What a beast that day.

[packerbacker7964]

Lil E Tee and Pine Bluff in the Ark Derby noses apart at the wire. 2nd would be Cigar winning the Oaklawn Handicap after getting hit in the face from Silver Goblins jockey and he just kept coming for Jerry Bailey.

The Breeder's Cup Sprint where Xtra Heat pasted herself to the rail and almost made it to the wire on a rocket fast break, sheer determination and guts. That mare knew how to WORK. She was nipped in the final strides by a fast closing Orientate.

[cal828]

Originally Posted by packerbacker7964

Lil E Tee and Pine Bluff in the Ark Derby noses apart at the wire. 2nd would be Cigar winning the Oaklawn Handicap after getting hit in the face from Silver Goblins jockey and he just kept coming for Jerry Bailey.

I saw that one also and a lot of other "greats" or near greats at Oaklawn going back a pretty long way, but to tell the truth a lot of these races I don't remember so well, but one that I do remember was the last time that Azeri won the Appleblossom when she and Take Charge Lady battled the length of the stretch and she barely prevailed. Another race that sticks out in my mind was when Demons Begone won the Southwest. It wasn't a close race. It was just the way that he did it. When the horses hit the top of the stretch he circled the whole field in a jaw-dropping move and won going away. Later on he won the Arkansas Derby in what seemed like a walk over, and everyone was excited to see him go to the KD, but he bled and I think may have finished last.

[westcoastinvader]

Originally Posted by horseofcourse

1979 Ohio Derby...Smarten set a track record that still stands today at venerable junk heap T-down! Of course that was my only visit to a thoroughbred track!! For some reason talked my dad into taking me for my 13th birthday and he did...increased my birthday payroll just a tiny bit with my 10 dollar win bet on Smarten...(low odds though!) Good horse, destroyed the field!! Seen lots of good quarter horse races, but those don't count.

Kudos for finding and remembering an Ohio race to rightfully toss into this circle!

Whodathunkit!

(I cut my teeth on the old Akron-Cleveland area tracks......most of which disappeared and were consolidated into "modern day" Thistledown just before you were born)

[slotdirt]

Smarten....definitely one of the more underrated stallions of the last 25 or 30 years.