I
In the spirit of March Madness, we are conducting a little experiment to determine how racing fans would evaluate the “best”, “greatest” or “most popular” (or any other criteria you think is applicable) horse of the last 5 or so years. Think of this as the “People’s Choice Awards” for racing. Use whatever criteria you think best determines which horses advance from round to round. Let us know how you arrived at your conclusions. How it works: Each day from March 16 through the end of the month, we will feature one matchup. We will post career specifics and some highlight races on our site to help you in your handicapping. Then you the fans will vote– favorite the tweet if choosing horse A, retweet if selecting horse B. Voting windows will close by 10:00 p.m. each night. The horse with the most votes will advance to the next round.
Here is the Bracket.
The last spot in the Final Four–joining top seeds Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra, and Wise Dan–will be determined by this matchup between the versatile Animal Kingdom and the spectacular Shared Belief. If looking for the “now” horse, or if you value dominant and impressive victories, then Shared Belief is your likely winner. But it’s hard to find a more complete horse in the last five years (not named Wise Dan) than Animal Kingdom–a winner on three different surfaces. Let us know who you think deserves to advance to the Final Four and why. Retweet for Shared Belied and favorite for Animal Kingdom.
The Final Four starts Monday!
Here are profiles for today’s competitors.
Shared Belief
Since his winning debut in October 2013, you really can’t argue with anything that this horse has done. He has won every single time out with the notable exception of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. And in that race, even the most strident Baffert/Bayern apologists have to admit that Shared Belief faced “extenuating circumstances.” I will never be able to prove this, but I firmly believe that if the start of that race went smoothly, and Moreno was able to take off as expected, we would be talking about Shared Belief as an undefeated super horse. But let’s move on from that. Shared Belief’s Pacific Classic last year was sublime, and he has opened this year with consecutive wins in the San Antonio (over California Chrome) and the Big ‘Cap. He is unquestionably horse racing’s current star. Further, as a gelding, I am hopeful that we will get to enjoy his work for years to come. Havre de Grace is in real tough here.
Here are Shared Belief’s near perfect stats.
You can watch his unforgettable domination in the Pacific Classic here.
Animal Kingdom
The versatile Animal Kingdom ran well on three different surfaces and three different continents. This Team Valor runner, trained by Graham Motion had a knack for winning the big races, as he claimed the Kentucky Derby in 2011 as a three year old and the Dubai World Cup in 2012 on synthetic as a 4yo. However, one of Animal Kingdom’s most impressive races actually came in defeat, when after a 9 month layoff he finish a game second to Horse of the Year Wise Dan in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. In a 12 race career that was reduced by injury, Animal Kingdom showed his versatility by winning on turf, dirt and synthetic, Grade I victories on both dirt and synthetic, and twice Grade I stakes-placed on turf.
Watch Animal Kingdom “beat the world” in the Dubai World Cup and the Kentucky Derby.
