Definition of Great Horse

[ELA]

Originally Posted by Revolution

Horses today run 6-7x a year. That is enough to be great. Slew ran 7x/yr as a 3yr old and 4yr old. That is all it takes. Averaging 2.7 races a year over a career is laughable though. Is 6 or 7 races a year too much to ask. I think not.

When you are talking, say for example, about a horse like Ghostzapper -- yes, 6 or 7 times is too much to ask for that particular horse. He was unsound from day 1. His physical problems precluded him from many things, and accomplishing more was just one of them.

As I said, I tend to look at these types of situations more globally. I would not penalize a horse for not being able to race more than he/she did. I would penalize a horse for ducking, avoiding, being able to race and not, etc.

Eric