Close but Not Quite

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Depends on who is having the conversation. On the top of his game there is no horse in the last 25 years that either couldnt beat on a regular basis at 1 1/4. Despite the attitude that prevails now, close losses to fellow great horses does not show weakness. The problem now is that horses get nice clean records but they never beat ( or lose to) anyone truly great because those horses simply dont exist any longer.

Alysheba is pretty easily a top 10 horse of the last 25 years. At least going 10f on dirt anyways. When Ferdinand finally got good, he was awesome too.

I always thought Precisionist and Greinton would hand most of these horses running these days their asses on a platter too.

The fickle Gentlemen, when he was feeling good, was as good as just about anything I've seen run.

There are a bunch of horses that were spectacular but had abbreviated careers, such as the aforementioned Candy Ride and Indian Charlie.

One horse from the 70's (before my time) that has intrigued me was Believe It.

He ran third in both the Derby and Preakness to Affirmed and Alydar. Interestingly enough, he also sired the most memorable (to me) horse with three starts that nobody has ever heard of, Swear, who won all three of his races by daylight.