He deserved to be a finalist because he was an amazing 2yo - who just laughed at our best horses with an amazing move.

However, comparing a 2yo who won a dirt race with a 101 Beyer and real nice 2yo turf races in Europe ... to a horse like this ...




it's like trying to compare Tim Tebow to Dan Marino.

No need to look at their records. Some others that did it off the top of my head:

Gulch, Personal Ensign, Best Pal, Bertrando, Free House, Silver Charm, Bet Twice, Serena's Song, Sharp Cat, Easy Goer, Spectacular Bid

Of course, it all depends on what you call great but those were all grade one winners in each year. Well, Bertrando didn't win a grade one as a 3yo but he did win a grade two and certainly carried his talent over the three seasons.

I wasn't comparing him to any horse. Only pointing out a 2yo that did get serious consideration for HOY.

I think the big change for Skip Away was he finally got a decent jock on him when Bailey got aboard later in his career, he was ridden more forwardly after Sellers and Santos were jettisoned and it certainly elevated his stature. He was definitely a better horse towards the latter part of his career than earlier when he was soundly beaten by Formal Gold on more than one occasion. The competition argument regarding Cigar is a valid and who knows how it would have panned out had Holy Bull not have been hurt (where we only have half a race to gauge that), I don't hold that against him but I can understand why people would point that out, it's nothing new.

Personal Ensign was a rarity though I wish she had raced more than the 13 times she did, Serena's Song lost it abit towards the end of her career and was kept around for the earnings record by Lewis/Lukas. Easy Goer was less effective at 4 and though he was a pretty good horse, I am not sure I would put him up there with the elite of all time.

I don't think the jocks mattered much ... Skip Away beat Cigar going a classic distance as a 3yo with Sellers on him.

I don't think Skip Away got better near the end ... I just think the epic talent level of the competition he was facing wore down before he did. Formal Gold and Will's Way both retired at supreme levels. Gentlemen was starting to decline. It was bacially a cause and effect.

When sharp horses like this get out of the way ....




You finally saw the long win streak and the sillyness about Skip Away's inability to win more than half of his races was put to rest.

Look at those Beyers... it's been a long time since we saw a lot of those.

Just thinking again about the kind or orgasms people would be having on forum board today if these kinds of horses were still around. Instead, we get to debate the merits of the Macho Agains and Past the Points and Einsteins of the world. Decent horses to be sure but ones that should never be considered top horses. Hell, even the Curlins and Big Browns don't compare.

I still say Formal Gold was better than Skip Away.

Especially 3 in a row.

Formal Gold = Much better than Ghsozapper

For comparsion's sake let's see Cigar's past p's during his streak. I'm sure it will illustrate he was on top of his game longer than than SA or FG.

That might be stretching it a bit... Ghostzapper hit/miss in terms of starts, but rarely did he not put forth a giant effort. But on dope alone, they're similar for sure.

ugh.

I bet him in about 10 of his 14 losses.

I at least did hit Dare and Go though!

Thanks KirisClown, I gotta learn how you guys to do that.

scan to jpg from the book "champions", upload to photobucket, post on forum. Not rocket science.

I was close, I converted an adobe file of his past p's to a jpeg but it was too large to post here. Photobucket I never heard of until now, I got it, Thx.

Download IrfanView. A free image viewer editor. Resize the photo using the resample setting, and voila!

Smaller picture, smaller file, minimal loss of quality.

You should also use the .gif file format instead of jpg for things like drf pps.

Thanks for the info guys!

2 days short of 2 full calendar years on top of his game. 20 races in that timespan with a record of 17-2-1. Whoever said it earlier is 100% correct, people would be all over themselves on this board today if we had a horse like this, it would dwarf what Rachel has done in her 2/3rds of a year campaign.