Comments on: Top 5 Favorite Belmonts

By: Jason Moran

Jason Moran — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 02:09:23 +0000

1. SECRETARIAT
2. AFFIRMED
3. VICTORY GALLOP
4. RAGS TO RICHES
5. TOUCH GOLD

By: Dana Byerly

Dana Byerly — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 02:17:42 +0000

Thanks Turk, and thanks for participating!

By: The Turk

The Turk — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 01:49:04 +0000

I love these lists because they give the panelists to say what their top five was. I loved Secretariat’s run and I watch it on YouTube once/month just because but it didn’t make my list here for no particular reason except five others are dearer in my heart.

I simply love Hello Race Fans! It’s the freshest site for horse racing to come along in some time.

By: Superfecta

Superfecta — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:52:49 +0000

No, one is not inherently faster than the other – but the fact remains that track maintenance patterns, the weather and changes in each individual surface over time mean that you’re never comparing them on a one-to-one basis – and an early twentieth-century dirt track was almost certainly ‘faster’ than a nineteenth-century turf track. Add in the fact that timing equipment improves over time and you have to call into question the accuracy of earlier readings – many eighteenth and nineteenth century records had more to do with folklore than reality.

By: Jumron

Jumron — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:34:41 +0000

world records are comparable on both surfaces. One is not inherently faster than the other……Data states otherwise
http://www.horsehats.com/horse-racing-records.html

By: Superfecta

Superfecta — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:00:24 +0000

Jumron, I’ve highlighted Pan Zareta, Imp and Equipoise on my site over the years (although I like to make things a little more international than just the US & Europe – it’s Ajax this month) – and I highly recommend you check out Colin’s Ghost for more on racing history. As for Man O’ War, he had a little help in breaking that earlier record, too – he was on dirt, not grass, and that (coupled with natural ability) made a difference in the times – insofar as you can consider early times terribly accurate, that is. But as Dana says, we’re talking about our favorites – which are, typically, ones you can actually see, whether it was live or on a replay. It doesn’t mean we don’t love history (speaking as someone who is still a professional historian, at least until Friday), but it’s an entirely different question – perhaps an idea for a future Index.

By: Dana Byerly

Dana Byerly — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:27:44 +0000

re: historical perspective & only speaking for myself, I discovered racing four years ago so even becoming acquainted with the recent racing history of the last 20-30 years is taking time.

It sounds like you’ve got a lot of historical insight to share, and I might suggest that you take a page from the A.Charles playbook and do so in the spirit of clueing new folks in vs. complaining that “NO ONE has any historical perspective any longer”. While I can see how that would be frustrating, this would be an opportunity to provide historical perspective vs. being alienating.

and re: Citation/Rags to Riches – that was one of the things that made her performance so impressive (and going wide… I was sitting right on the turn and got good look at her winding up, it was incredible!).

By: Jumron

Jumron — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:15:15 +0000

NO ONE has any historical perspective any longer. You mention Equipoise Imp or Pan Zareta and you are greeted with a blank stare…….Nashua and Native Dancer won this with ease as well. Stage Door Johnny ran a remarkable race as well.

By: Jumron

Jumron — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:06:32 +0000

Arcaro used to mention that Citation went down on his nose out of the gate in his Belmont and recovered to handle the challenge not unlike the little lady handing it to Curlin as she too went down at the start.

By: Dana Byerly

Dana Byerly — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:39:58 +0000

Thanks for the comments!

A.Charles – thanks for sharing the insight about the depth of the 97 TC, I personally think a situation like that is much more interesting than one with a dominate favorite, which is what we might had this year with Eskendereya if it had worked out differently.

Jurmon – you’ll note the title of the post is “Top 5 Favorite Belmonts”, not “5 Best Belmonts”. You’ll also note if you read some of the panelists selections that many, myself included, ranked races that they witnessed personally higher than races that were arguably better.

Incredible races such as Man o’War’s and Citation’s are at a huge disadvantage in a situation like this because we can’t see the replays. But, every single Belmont race chart is available at the Belmont site, which is pretty great! It certainly helps give more context to some of the stellar races that we have no way of seeing.