Why It's Silly To Play Woulda/Coulda/Shoulda

Originally Posted by somerfrost

I think it varies based on a lot of factors...was Count Fleet great? He raced a lot but never after the Belmont. How about Pharis? Lammtarra? Hard to make a hard fast rule here!

I addressed the Lammtarra case on the other thread ... but I'll repeat it here ...

Lammtarra won the three most important races in Europe ... twice defeating large fields of the best older horses. He was great ... and he proved it on the racetrack.

On other threads in the past ... I've addressed Count Fleet ... and Ruffian ... neither of whom won another race after winning their respective Triple Crowns in June of their 3YO years.

Both of them looked sensational ... winning by substantial margins and running fast times. But they did it against weak crops of their contemporaries ... and never faced a quality horse from another crop ... or ... in Ruffian's case ... defeated a colt.

What would have happened had they faced tougher opposition ... or quality older opponents? We'll never know ... so that leaves both of their careers achingly incomplete ... and shy of what other great horses accomplished.