Top 25 3yo's 1987-2007

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Cajungator26

I'm knocking on 30s' door... that depresses ME.

30's arent so bad. 40's has been a little rough...

If you are weighing TC races then how can you leave out Monarchos? I can't, and I couldn't stand the horse.

[Indian Charlie]

i'm surprised nobody mentioned awesome again. i know he might not have accomplished as much as a 3yo as touch gold, but c'mon.

dinard was a monster before getting hurt. his win over best pal and apollo was a great race.

did anyone list tiznow? not many horses debut as a 3yo and win HOY that same year.

fupeg, when on his game, would beat most of the names i've seen on this list. well, at least a lot of them, if not most.

indian charlie never got to prove how good he really was, but i feel he's definitely among the best on any of these lists. he kicked the crap out of some nice horses butt's in his limited time racing, including real quiet, artax and old trieste.

unbridled on his day was pretty damn nice.

king glorious was pretty awesome.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Dinard didn't beat Olympio in the Santa Anita Derby, cuz Olympio wasn't in that race. Dinard did beat Olympio as a 3yo by a mere nose in the since defunct Los Feliz, a restricted one mile stakes run early in the SA winter meet.

Dinard bested an off the bench Best Pal twice leading up to the Derby (in two slowly rated races), but his season was cut short by injury. He returned the following winter at SA to get lit up by Olympio in the Malibu (by 9 lengths or so) and followed that up with a drubbing at the hands of Best Pal (in career form at the time) in the Strub Stakes.

Both Dinard and Olympio never ran again after the Strub. Best Pal ran for about 10 more years.

You are correct about the SA Derby. However, you are incorrect about the Los Feliz. In that race, Dinard, in his second career race, dusted Olympio by about five under a hand ride. It was Olympio that came back to beat Dinard by a nose in the San Vicente (1:21 1/5). Dinard then returned to win the San Rafael by a nose over Apollo, also beating Best Pal and Mane Minister, the 2-3 finishers in the Kentucky Derby. After that, Dinard won the SA Derby, again beating Best Pal and Mane Minister (Mane Minister was third in all three TC races) as well as San Felipe winner Sea Cadet and Scan, who went on to win two grade ones later in that year.

Dinard was not the same horse after his injury and if you want to hold his losses afterwards against him, that's fine. But it seems like you are making an effort to take away what he did do and in the winter of 1991, I don't think there was a better 3yo and Dinard was the favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

But it seems like you are making an effort to take away what he did do and in the winter of 1991, I don't think there was a better 3yo and Dinard was the favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

Hansel was much sharper in his final two preps for the Derby than Dinard was. Of course, Hansel was decidedly flat in the Derby off those performances.

Considering the 3 gut busting stretch runs Dinard had to uncork in his final 3 preps (all resulting in close finishes...and probably the injury that forced him to the bench) its hard to say that the Derby was at his mercy, either.

Best Pal ran his SA preps like a short horse rounding into form (sharp middle moves with an even finish). I wouldn't necessarily take his sharp second in the Derby as proof that Dinard would have been right there had he held together.

[Bigsmc]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

30's arent so bad. 40's has been a little rough...

Right on the money...

[TheSpyder]

When you get to your 50's , the 30-40's all seems like easy street. Enjoy it while you can.

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

30's arent so bad. 40's has been a little rough...

[SundayStar]

Originally Posted by miraja2

1) Sunday Silence





































































24 others that weren't nearly as good.

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by pgardn

Ok so I went 30...

OOps.

Excuse me for being old... and unable to read.

So instead of naming the top 25 in the last 20 years, you named the top 20 in the last 30 years.
That makes Hansel's inclusion on your list even more strange.

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

i'm surprised nobody mentioned awesome again. i know he might not have accomplished as much as a 3yo as touch gold, but c'mon.
did anyone list tiznow? not many horses debut as a 3yo and win HOY that same year.
unbridled on his day was pretty damn nice.

Awesome Again didn't win a single G1 as a 3yo, and won only one graded stakes race (the Jim Dandy). He was much better at 4.
I agree on Tiznow and Unbridled. They were both on my list.

[SniperSB23]

Smarty Jones first 10 furlongs in the Belmont were fantastic. His last two furlongs have to be the most overrated in the history of the sport. The only reason he "showed so much heart" was cause Birdstone was running so damn slow. Imagine if you had a horse coming at the end just with solid closing fractions of 25.00 instead of 26.42. You then would have had that horse making up an extra ten lengths on Smarty in the stretch and it would have looked like they ran by him while he was standing still. Would anyone be talking about his heart then? I don't want to take anything away from the first 10 furlongs he ran in that race but this idea that he showed so much heart in the final two furlongs is nothing more than an optical illusion created by how slow Birdstone was also going.

[Travis Stone]

Originally Posted by SniperSB23

I don't want to take anything away from the first 10 furlongs he ran in that race but this idea that he showed so much heart in the final two furlongs is nothing more than an optical illusion created by how slow Birdstone was also going.

You're absolutely right, good post. I would also add though that Smarty Jones' last two furlongs would have been stronger had he not had so much early pressure.

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

You're absolutely right, good post. I would also add though that Smarty Jones' last two furlongs would have been stronger had he not had so much early pressure.

That I don't doubt.

[horseofcourse]

Curlin
Street Sense
Barbaro
Barnardini
Afleet Alex
Lost in the Fog
Smarty Jones
Point Given
Tiznow
Xtra Heat
Silver Charm
Skip Away
Thunder Gulch
Holy Bull
AP Indy
Hansel
Go For Wand
Unbridled
Easy Goer
Sunday Silence
Forty Niner
Risen Star
Bet Twice
Alysheba
Java Gold

Reverse chronological. didn't look at rest of thread so probably forgot about some. remembered these.

[SundayStar]

Originally Posted by horseofcourse

Curlin
Street Sense
Barbaro
Barnardini
Afleet Alex
Lost in the Fog
Smarty Jones
Point Given
Tiznow
Xtra Heat
Silver Charm
Skip Away
Thunder Gulch
Holy Bull
AP Indy
Hansel
Go For Wand
Unbridled
Easy Goer
Sunday Silence
Forty Niner
Risen Star
Bet Twice
Alysheba
Java Gold

Reverse chronological. didn't look at rest of thread so probably forgot about some. remembered these.

good list

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by miraja2

Awesome Again didn't win a single G1 as a 3yo, and won only one graded stakes race (the Jim Dandy). He was much better at 4.
I agree on Tiznow and Unbridled. They were both on my list.

they dont run grade 1's in canada?

[philcski]

Originally Posted by horseofcourse

Curlin
Street Sense
Barbaro
Barnardini
Afleet Alex
Lost in the Fog
Smarty Jones
Point Given
Tiznow
Xtra Heat
Silver Charm
Skip Away
Thunder Gulch
Holy Bull
AP Indy
Hansel
Go For Wand
Unbridled
Easy Goer
Sunday Silence
Forty Niner
Risen Star
Bet Twice
Alysheba
Java Gold

Reverse chronological. didn't look at rest of thread so probably forgot about some. remembered these.

Agree, that is probably my list as well give or take one or two. Nice job.

[philcski]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

they dont run grade 1's in canada?

The Queens Plate is a CDN bred restricted race, ungraded.

Trust me, I'd include Awesome Again if I could- but his career was at 4.

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by philcski

The Queens Plate is a CDN bred restricted race, ungraded.

Trust me, I'd include Awesome Again if I could- but his career was at 4.

holy cow, i never realized that!

still, he was better as a 3yo than a whole lot of the ones named in this thread. didnt he win the queen's plate in his 2nd or 3rd start?

[blackthroatedwind]

If nothing else, anyone that includes Lost in the Fog and NOT Housebuster, needs, at the very least, a course in recent racing history. Housebuster ran numberous races, as a 3YO, that dwarfed anything Lost in the Fog ever did.