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#1
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Mineshaft- 9 starts. Congaree- 9 starts. Medaglia D'Oro- 5 starts. Pleasantly Perfect- 4 starts. Milwaukee Brew- 4 starts. Candy Ride- 3 starts. Congaree was dusted in the Met Mile and beaten on the square in both the Kentucky Cup and the Breeder's Cup. Pleasantly Perfect and Milwaukee Brew were opportunists at best. Perfect Drift wasted starts on turf and was no factor in the BC. Medaglia D'Oro beat the exact same horses Mineshaft did (ie Olmodovar, Evening Attire, Volponi, etc.), but lost both his starts at 10f including the BC Classic. Candy Ride won a single main track race in a 3-horse field which included a horse that was retired 24 hours later with an injury, and he himself was never heard from again. |
#2
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You talk about how Congaree and MDO and Perfect Drift were beaten in the Classic but you miss the point I was making in the first place. That they were all there to face each other meant that all of them except for one would have to lose. Congaree faced Perfect Drift in Kentucky. They both couldn't win. MDO and Candy Ride both couldn't win the Pacific Classic. Congaree, Milwaukee Brew, and Pleasantly Perfect were all in the San Antonio. This is what I'm talking about. Their records were all going to suffer because they were consistently facing each other while Mineshaft was getting a steady diet of lower level horses.
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The real horses of the year (1986-2020) Manila, Java Gold, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Go for Wand, In Excess, Paseana, Kotashaan, Holy Bull, Cigar, Alphabet Soup, Formal Gold, Skip Away, Artax, Tiznow, Point Given, Azeri, Candy Ride, Smarty Jones, Ghostzapper, Invasor, Curlin, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Goldikova, Havre de Grace, Wise Dan, Wise Dan, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Arrogate, Gun Runner, Accelerate, Maximum Security, Gamine |
#3
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Pleasantly Perfect made all of 4 starts, all at Santa Anita. His record "suffered" because he didn't run between March and October and he couldn't get close to Congaree without a tailor-made setup. Instead of trying to pad your argument with nonsense, just say what your main gripe is...that Mineshaft didn't run in the BC Classic. Who cares? The race was won by the worst of your top 7 older horses that year when the beneficiary of one of the greatest setups of all time. Mineshaft had the more illustrious campaign of the bunch. The only other horse that didn't have a cherry-picked season was Congaree, but he had too many high-profile losses (Big Cap, Met Mile, etc.) to overtake Mineshaft. I find your argument pretty ironic coming from a guy who thinks Java Gold should have been HOY in 1987. |
#4
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Perfect Drift faced Congaree in at Turfway and Mineshaft in the Foster Congaree faced everyone all year Medaglia faced Candy Ride at Del Mar and ran in the BC Pleasantly Perfect faced Congaree and Milwaukee Brew in February and was in the Classic. Of those seven, all of them faced more than one other member of the group and most of them did so multiple times. The only one that didn't was Mineshaft. This is a fact that you can't argue. I couldn't care less if Mineshaft had run in the Classic or not. Quite often, the horse I've thought should have been HOY didn't run in the Classic. Still doesn't change the fact that while the others were facing each other, some of them several times, Mineshaft got away without having to be challenged by any of them and the one time he was, he lost. Debate it how you want to but that's the truth. If he had to face Congaree a couple of times or Medaglia or Candy Ride, I doubt he comes out with the same kind of record he had. And yeah, the Java Gold argument is the same. He only beat Alysheba, Bet Twice, Gulch, Nostalgia's Star, Cryptoclearance, Polish Navy, Broad Brush, Temperate Sil, Cutlass Reality, etc. Save for Ferdinand and Lost Code, he beat just about every other top class dirt horse out there.
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The real horses of the year (1986-2020) Manila, Java Gold, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Go for Wand, In Excess, Paseana, Kotashaan, Holy Bull, Cigar, Alphabet Soup, Formal Gold, Skip Away, Artax, Tiznow, Point Given, Azeri, Candy Ride, Smarty Jones, Ghostzapper, Invasor, Curlin, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Goldikova, Havre de Grace, Wise Dan, Wise Dan, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Arrogate, Gun Runner, Accelerate, Maximum Security, Gamine |
#5
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Why is a single horse's record (Mineshaft) being pitted against 6 other horses collectively? Consider those 6 horses individually, and none can overcome the accomplishments of Mineshaft. Quote:
Don't bother bringing up forays to Del Mar. Nobody had Candy Ride at the top of their list of top handicap horses (how could they?--no one knew who he was). Guess why Frankel showed up there instead of the Woodward? Quote:
He did get revenge on Balto Star in the Pimlico Special at least. Quote:
How'd he do in the Triple Crown? |
#6
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![]() Soon as I finish looking up Hold that Tiger's record. Might as well look up Quest's record too and Western Pride and Judge's Case. Those monsters that Mineshaft had to face while the real top horses were facing each other.
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The real horses of the year (1986-2020) Manila, Java Gold, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Go for Wand, In Excess, Paseana, Kotashaan, Holy Bull, Cigar, Alphabet Soup, Formal Gold, Skip Away, Artax, Tiznow, Point Given, Azeri, Candy Ride, Smarty Jones, Ghostzapper, Invasor, Curlin, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Goldikova, Havre de Grace, Wise Dan, Wise Dan, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Arrogate, Gun Runner, Accelerate, Maximum Security, Gamine |
#7
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![]() PP's of the top older males from 2003:
http://test.drf.com/eclipse/2003/pps/om.pdf Perfect Drift was a complete and utter badass that year. His dopey trainer kept running him on turf and talking about how he was going to enter him in the Melbourne Cup. I remember before Perfect Drift made his 5-year-old debut and all the hanging problems started - he was based at the CD training center. Before his first start that season, Wismer told me he thought something was amiss with him. He gallops horses that he trains and was on the track with him a lot of mornings. He told me not to bet Perfect Drift in his comeback race and said he thought he might miss the board - I basically laughed at him and mocked him for thinking that. |
#8
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#9
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The real horses of the year (1986-2020) Manila, Java Gold, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Go for Wand, In Excess, Paseana, Kotashaan, Holy Bull, Cigar, Alphabet Soup, Formal Gold, Skip Away, Artax, Tiznow, Point Given, Azeri, Candy Ride, Smarty Jones, Ghostzapper, Invasor, Curlin, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Goldikova, Havre de Grace, Wise Dan, Wise Dan, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Arrogate, Gun Runner, Accelerate, Maximum Security, Gamine |