Jockey Club Gold Cup

[Smooth Operator]

Originally Posted by oracle80

Scav, heart is a great thing, but Zapper would have blown Tiznow so far off the track that he wouldnt have known what hit him. I really think that those who romanticize the sport and certain horses are great, but I think it often clouds their sense of reality. Noone in the world I ever saw in 24 years of watching this sport was gonna beat Ghostzapper that day in the BCC, noone. And Roses performance that day remains the single most underrated performance in history. he would have won any other running and was dead game.

You could be right....Frankel did a hell of a job getting him ready for that race.

The key was the half-mile split. When that 47 popped up on the screen, I knew they'd never catch him (Roses was a half-length back at that point).

Even if Velazquez would've sent Roses out on a quicker pace, Castellano should've been able to get Ghostzapper into a good stalking position....where he likely would've blown by Roses on the turn (similar to the Met Mile, but probably not as dramatic since Roses was much better than anything he faced in that race).

At any rate, it was a superb gate-to-wire performance by both horse and jockey that day....