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Originally Posted by King Glorious
That's not the point here. If your criteria for a 3yo being named HOY is that he has to beat older horses, that's fine. But don't say that Bernardini HAS to do it but excuse Barbaro from having to do it. There is nothing that says for sure that Barbaro would have done it so he shouldn't be excused. The point was that it's ridiculous to say that a horse can be the best horse in the country (HOY) but not even win the championship as the best horse in his own division.
As for the Belmont, why run in it? It's a worthless race unless a horse is going for the TC. It proves NOTHING. It's not like back in the older days when the Belmont was a chance to see which of the 3yo's could handle the 12f distance and would be able to compete with the older horses in the fall championship races, which were at 12f and further. Nowdays, this is the only 12f dirt stakes race in the country, at least the only grade one. So it's basically been turned into something totally irrelevant. Unless there is a TC on the line. I know that if I owned a horse that ran in the Derby and didn't win, there is not a chance in hell that he'd come anywhere close to the starting gate for either the Preakness or the Belmont. There are too many other races out there for as much money or nearly as much and I'd rather go in races that are at more manageable distances instead of the Belmont. Also, look at some of the Belmont horses over the past 10 years:
2006-Jazil.....might be done for the year
2005-Afleet Alex never raced again; Giacomo didn't race again that year
2004-Birdstone, two more career races; Smarty never raced again
2003-Funny Cide.....still around (gelding); Empire Maker one more race
2002-War Emblem......few more races after the Belmont
2001-Point Given......two more career races
1999-Charismatic.......never raced again
1998-Real Quiet........didn't race again that year
1997-Silver Charm......didn't race again that year (well, the Malibu on 12/26)
Is this a race that u would want to run in?
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Actually, yes. It would mean that my horse had that one more G1 under his belt IF Bernardini could have gotten the distance (which I doubt he could have.) In fact, has Bernardini ever even been a mile and a quarter?
And a horse doesn't always win his division and the HOY. That's just the way it works... I don't do the decision making on that one, but I think that as it stands right now, Barbaro deserves the 3 year old division. Bernardini puts on one hell of a show, but until he beats some quality horses (older or not), I won't be jumping on that bandwagon.