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.
Game Two of the Final Four. Zenyatta, in her usual form, came from way back to beat Rachel by a nose yesterday to advance to the Championship. Today’s matchup features this year’s Cinderella, Animal Kingdom, who upset Shared Belief in the Elite 8, versus one-seeded Wise Dan, a two time Horse of The Year. This is the first matchup in #HorseMadness where the two competitors actually met on the race track. Wise Dan and Animal Kingdom faced off in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Mile (watch it here). Wise Dan streaked into the race off of victories at Keeneland and Saratoga. Animal Kingdom had been off since February but still put in a gutsy performance to finish second to the Dan.
It could be argued that their meeting on the track was not a fair fight, as AK was coming off a long layoff and the battle was waged on Dan’s down and distance of one mile on turf. We will leave it to you to decide if the result should stand, or whether Kingdom can keep dancing in upset fashion. Here are the facts:
Wise Dan
Six Eclipse Awards, two horse of the year honors, two Breeders Cup victories. He’s won on multiple surfaces at varying distances. Wise Dan’s credentials can fill an entire Daily Racing Form. And at his game, a mile on the turf, he has proven nearly unbeatable.
The eight year old gelding has captured 11 Grade 1′s and numerous other graded stakes. He’s also done so in impressive fashion. While his 5 and 6 year old campaigns were marked by dominant wins, his injury riddled 7 year old campaign was impressive for the gutsy and determined victories he earned. Less than two weeks after a heart stopping stretch drive in the Woodford Reserve, where he fended off Seek Again, Wise Dan underwent emergency Colic surgery. He emerged over three months later to capture the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch followed by the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile. He’s back on the track and pointing towards a 2015 campaign. Could a date with today’s rival be in the plans?
Here is Dan’s 2015 Bernard Baruch win — one of my favorite Wise Dan races.
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 theDubai World Cup and the Kentucky Derby.
