Who Was Your Favorite And/Or Best Race Horse You Ever Saw?

[PhillyFlyers]

I won a race horse in a poker game,,,,My uncle ran 2 games 1 in Yonkers 1 in the Bronx I dealt for him when I was 17. After work I played poker and beat a guy out of 2700 he wanted to give me a race horse for it a standard bred. I knew an old trainer who was really good with horses I was friends with his son, He came and looked at the horse he was about 250 lbs over wieght hadnt raced in a year shaggy looked like crap. Eddie the trainer looked at his lines on paper then looked the horse over he did some strange things like grabbed at his back which made the horse buckle he comes over an says how much? I said well its 2700 but he lost that to me ...He said make the deal. Eddie works him over at the farm and finds a huge infection in his hoof we cut part of it away train him to swim so theres no wear an tear and bingo 6 months later I take him up to qualify at Monti looking to get him in a 3 or 5 claimer Eddie drives the qualifier himself Sarafella wins by 30 lenghts
we took him to Yonkers after that ...He goes on to win 6 of the 9 races I owned him before he was claimed for 15k ...He may not have been a great horse to a lot of people but to me he was my monster I had more fun at that time in my life than any other time,

Great story. Thank you.

Good for you bro.

[PhillyFlyers]

Smarty Jones

What a great horse.

[str]

The greatest male horse that I ever saw was Secretariat. He was so big and so strong up close, he did not look like other horses. It was incredible!

The greatest female horse that I ever saw was Ruffian. I have never seen anything like her from the mental aspect. We have all seen the Mike Singletary stare when he was playing before. Being a groom at the time at Monmouth Park, I saw Ruffian from the viewing stand at the 5/8s pole as she raced down the backside as a two year old. The fire in her eyes made Singletary's stare seem like it was no big deal. I was shocked when I saw it. She was crazed with competitive fire. A total freak.

My favorite horse and the horse that pushed me too become a trainer was Lucky Lord. I won't bore you with the details but I still have his halter and shank that he ran his last race in as well as his saddle towel that he wore everyday. I consider myself very lucky too have had the honor of being his groom.

Thanks for a great thread!

[PhillyFlyers]

The greatest male horse that I ever saw was Secretariat. He was so big and so strong up close, he did not look like other horses. It was incredible!

The greatest female horse that I ever saw was Ruffian. I have never seen anything like her from the mental aspect. We have all seen the Mike Singletary stare when he was playing before. Being a groom at the time at Monmouth Park, I saw Ruffian from the viewing stand at the 5/8s pole as she raced down the backside as a two year old. The fire in her eyes made Singletary's stare seem like it was no big deal. I was shocked when I saw it. She was crazed with competitive fire. A total freak.

My favorite horse and the horse that pushed me too become a trainer was Lucky Lord. I won't bore you with the details but I still have his halter and shank that he ran his last race in as well as his saddle towel that he wore everyday. I consider myself very lucky too have had the honor of being his groom.

Thanks for a great thread!

This post is awesome. Thank you.

Secretariat, in my view, was the greatest ever. When he died, it was discovered that his heart was over 2x the size of an average horse's heart.

A big engine for a big horse.

[shari91]

Favourite: Dandy Dollar winning at $61 at Flemington in Oct '07. My biggest win ever. The connections invited me into the Owners Room to celebrate with them because I had a good chunk of the Members dining room screaming him on as if they'd placed the bet themselves. Will never forget that day. For those who have never been to Melbourne for Spring Carnival, add it to your bucket list if you're a racing fan. It really is remarkable and just goes on and on over a couple of weeks.

Best (for me): Has to be Black Caviar. Not sure I'll get as close to another horse like that in my lifetime.

[shari91]

And yeah, thanks everyone - great thread. Love hearing stories about everyone's favourite horses. Great way for me to pass the time before sleep kicks in by trying to find video of some of the ones I've never heard of. What a magical sport. Love it.

[PhillyFlyers]

Favourite: Dandy Dollar winning at $61 at Flemington in Oct '07. My biggest win ever. The connections invited me into the Owners Room to celebrate with them because I had a good chunk of the Members dining room screaming him on as if they'd placed the bet themselves. Will never forget that day. For those who have never been to Melbourne for Spring Carnival, add it to your bucket list if you're a racing fan. It really is remarkable and just goes on and on over a couple of weeks.

Best (for me): Has to be Black Caviar. Not sure I'll get as close to another horse like that in my lifetime.

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

[PhillyFlyers]

And yeah, thanks everyone - great thread. Love hearing stories about everyone's favourite horses. Great way for me to pass the time before sleep kicks in by trying to find video of some of the ones I've never heard of. What a magical sport. Love it.

I agree. It is magical.

[LT Profits]

Oh what might have been…

[PhillyFlyers]

Oh what might have been…

What a great horse. He won those races looking like he wasn't even trying.

Damn shame about his injuries.

[LT Profits]

Vintage

[str]

After Lucky Lord died, we took his body out to my parents farm in Md. and my brother myself and another friend dug the hole, one shovel full at a time, and buried him. It was Easter Sunday morning 1975 and it rained the whole day.
The picture is an oil painting that I had made of him and you can see his saddle towel and the program of his last race.

[13th Inning]

+1


Should have been a triple crown winner if anyone but Stewart Elliiot was on his back.

I agree - I mean, it was a coksucker move by Stevens and Bailey - mainly Bailey - to use those kind of tactics, but Elliott should have known better than to get suckered in. He didn't need to be on the lead, anyway.

Smarty Jones was the best chance we had at a triple crown winner in a long time. Frustrating that it didn't happen, when it absolutely should have. There's a good chance it may never happen again.

What I always remember about that race is the disappointment in Durkin's voice when Birdstone goes by just before the wire. He sounded totally deflated.

[13th Inning]

On topic, though, my favorite horses were Rachel Alexandra and Medaglia D'Oro.

I love that Donnaguska race, and I made my biggest score with Closing Argument in the Giacomo derby.

But my favorite is still Rachel. I drove to Saratoga to see her face the boys in the Woodward, and after they went the first quarter in 22-4/5ths, I figured my trip was a waste. But she hung on. Great race.

[konck]

Favourite: Dandy Dollar winning at $61 at Flemington in Oct '07. My biggest win ever. The connections invited me into the Owners Room to celebrate with them because I had a good chunk of the Members dining room screaming him on as if they'd placed the bet themselves. Will never forget that day. For those who have never been to Melbourne for Spring Carnival, add it to your bucket list if you're a racing fan. It really is remarkable and just goes on and on over a couple of weeks.

Best (for me): Has to be Black Caviar. Not sure I'll get as close to another horse like that in my lifetime.

Love the racing in australia my wife was from Geelong I went to the trotters quite a few times loved the
fair like atmosphere went in an ate with the horse people. Love the row of books trying to get your bets as well
as being able to bet at the track windows.

[PhillyFlyers]

After Lucky Lord died, we took his body out to my parents farm in Md. and my brother myself and another friend dug the hole, one shovel full at a time, and buried him. It was Easter Sunday morning 1975 and it rained the whole day.
The picture is an oil painting that I had made of him and you can see his saddle towel and the program of his last race.

[ATTACH]41512[/ATTACH]

What a beautiful horse.

Must have been quite the sight standing next to him.

[str]

What a beautiful horse.

Must have been quite the sight standing next to him.

His last win :

[PhillyFlyers]

His last win :

[ATTACH]41518[/ATTACH]

That is awesome.

Thank you for sharing.

[19th Hole]

I was lucky enough to have seen Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew at the Kentucky Derby in '77.

Would have loved to have seen the great Secretariat.
STR...You're a lucky man.


Seattle Slew (February 15, 1974 – May 7, 2002) was an American Thoroughbred race horse who won the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in 1977, the tenth of eleven horses to accomplish the feat. He remains the only horse to win the Triple Crown while undefeated.

[LT Profits]

I was lucky enough to have seen Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew at the Kentucky Derby in '77.

Would have loved to have seen the great Secretariat.
STR...You're a lucky man.


Seattle Slew (February 15, 1974 – May 7, 2002) was an American Thoroughbred race horse who won the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in 1977, the tenth of eleven horses to accomplish the feat. He remains the only horse to win the Triple Crown while undefeated.

I saw Slew get beat live by Dr. Patches at the Meadowlands.

[LT Profits]

Vintage

Thanks for nominating rob, now let me get some ancient Man'O'War footage

[robmpink]

Thanks for nominating rob, now let me get some ancient Man'O'War footage

It deserved it! I never saw this.

[LT Profits]

[Roadtrip635]

Barbaro was another horse I really liked, such a good looking horse big strong and fast. I watched every one of his races and you just knew this horse was going to be special. My biggest Kentucky Derby score was Barbaro and Bluegrass Cat, Barbaro wasn't the longest shot I've ever hit on Derby day, but I was so sure of these two somehow finishing 1 and 2. Barbaro was just an impressive horse. Bluegrass Cat went into the Derby "slumping" finished 2nd and 4th in the two races leading to the Derby. One of those races He had thrown a shoe and still finished 2nd and the other was a 4th at Keeneland that had been running a very severe front-runner bias that whole season. The public totally disrespected Bluegrass Cat's ability and class for this race. I hit two pick 3's, a pick 4, 4 exactas on different tickets and WP bets I had placed on Barbaro and Bluegrass Cat. It was a great day!

It was such a shame what happened to Barbaro, I really think he could have gone on to win the Triple Crown if he hadn't been injured. He just had that feel of a once in a generation horse.

[daoilman]

Victor Espinosa

To this day Ive never seen a horse go wire to wire in the derby.

14 years earlier, a filly wired the Derby field.

[PhillyFlyers]

The great War Emblem.

A wire-to-wire win in the 2002 Kentucky Derby in which he pulls away easily.

[TonyP]

Tiznow

[JakeLc]

[Thunder Gulch]

Been to 22 Derbies and 7 Breeders Cups. I saw some amazing animals in that time...Skip Away, Silver Charm, Smarty Jones, Tiznow, Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta. Two years ago, I thought I'd never see anything like Rachel's Kentucky Oaks winning by 20 in a hand ride- Secretariat'esque. Just thinking about a 130 year race for the best fillies and smashing all the records....amazing.. but then, the next year, I saw the GREAT Goldlikova win her 3rd straight BC Mile at Churchill. I have never been as giddy and electrified by a run from a horse in all my life. Her explosion was just unbelievable. That was the day Zenyatta lost going from last to 2nd in a quarter mile, but Goldlikova went from stuck in traffic in the back to on the lead in about 75 yards vs the best milers in the world, and just like that it was over. I hope to see something like that again in my life. . As good as that effort was, objectively thinking, Goldlikova was a standout superstar of that day.

[Thunder Gulch]

Favorites were Silver Charm and Thunder Gulch.

One unforgettable horse nobody every heard of for me was a nobody named Max Power who knocked around on the classified allowance/claiming level for a few years in the early 2000's. I was watching the Simpsons with a buddy of mine one night when Homer went into witness protection and called himself Max Power. The next day we're at the track and hear Trevor Denman call a horse named Max Power coming out on the track. I raced to the window, plunked down a $100, and laughed my ass off as he romped home by open lengths at 14-1.

[smitch124]

I always liked Cigar, especially after this obnoxious guy at the track bet a ton of money on Holy Bull to show to get the minimum $2.10 show payout. Holy Bull went off at 1 to 10, he broke down, didn't finish and that race started an incredible run for that blank shooting bastard that actually ran in a claiming race early in his career.

[str]

Been to 22 Derbies and 7 Breeders Cups. I saw some amazing animals in that time...Skip Away, Silver Charm, Smarty Jones, Tiznow, Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta. Two years ago, I thought I'd never see anything like Rachel's Kentucky Oaks winning by 20 in a hand ride- Secretariat'esque. Just thinking about a 130 year race for the best fillies and smashing all the records....amazing.. but then, the next year, I saw the GREAT Goldlikova win her 3rd straight BC Mile at Churchill. I have never been as giddy and electrified by a run from a horse in all my life. Her explosion was just unbelievable. That was the day Zenyatta lost going from last to 2nd in a quarter mile, but Goldlikova went from stuck in traffic in the back to on the lead in about 75 yards vs the best milers in the world, and just like that it was over. I hope to see something like that again in my life. . As good as that effort was, objectively thinking, Goldlikova was a standout superstar of that day.

An extremely passionate post!

Awesome!

It is a great game and it is very refreshing when people ( and especially posters) like you, show the passion that understanding the game generates.

[str]

[ATTACH]41566[/ATTACH]

Thank you so much Jake.

I am sure that I have a lot of Luck's PPs in storage somewhere in my office here. I will try and dig them out and I suppose that I should tell the whole story in my thread at some point.

Thanks again for digging up Luck's old form.

[Jayvegas420]

.....AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME......

JJ & LT...
How old are you guys?!
That Donna Gooska horse was incredible.
Besides the notables there is one recent favorite of mine that has not really panned out.
It is UNCLE MO. I don't know if he was hurt but, I was all over this horse & he began to scratch from all the big races.

Great thread!

[dogkatcher]

Some of us are old as dirt. I remember seeing Silky Sullivan, but
one of my all time favorites was Native Diver, winner of the Hollywood
Gold Cup 3 years in a row. Beautiful black horse, loved the lead and
did win 34 Stakes races in his career, and over a $million$ when it
wasn't so easy to come by in the early 60's. They put 130 lbs. on him,
just didn't matter. After having won the Del Mar Handicap, a few days
later, he died of colic, and I think he was about 8 years old. Great loss.