Horse Racing Fantasy Community

Spectacular Bid's 4 year-old campaign was one of the most phenomenal seasons in the entire history of thoroughbred racing. In a way, it might be a positive thing that the Bid stepped on that infamous safety pin the day of the 1979 Belmont and lost in his attempt at a Triple Crown. Who knows if The Bid would even have been raced as a 4-year-old?

Well, I mentioned in my last entry that the phenomenal Spectacular Bid rebounded from his unfortunate, but still predictable, 1979 loss in the Jockey Club Gold Cup to fellow Hall-of-Famer Affirmed to go on a tear in 1980, his 4-year-old season.

Spectacular Bid was a hard luck loser of the Belmont Stakes in 1979, but he still won Champion 3-year-old Colt honors. When he lost the 1979 Jockey Club Gold Cup to the 4-year-old Affirmed, it would go down in history as the last race he would ever lose.

Everything finally clicked for him, and just in time! Up to this point Borrego had not put it all together. Because he was a classic closer that meant that, like all closers, things had to go just right for him to win. He'd had a number of close calls, including 2nd place finishes in the Sham, Louisiana, and Arkansas Derbies.

What a horse he was, what a horse he is in our game!Fun doesn't begin to describe the experience of playing our game with access to all the great champions, from recent greats like Curlin, Big Brown and Ghostzapper, to older champions like Dr. Fager, Damascus, Bold Ruler, or even farther back like the great Man o' War and his two descendants War Admiral and Seabiscuit.

Watching Barbaro's seemingly effortless victory in the Kentucky Derby and how all Edgar Prado did was flash the whip in front of his right eye in the stretch to remind him not to loaf, a thought occurred to me: What would've happened had Prado, defying all conventional wisdom, given Barbaro 3 or 4 lashes at the quarter pole? What would the margin of victory have been?

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the great Citation's romp to the Triple Crown. We'll take a look at the 1948 Run for the Roses here. Note the remarkably small field of only six horses. Citation was a very intimidating presence to the other owners and trainers. The track was muddy that day, but it didn't bother this horse, one of the all-time greats.

The chicken or the egg? When it comes to the great sports debates that's what if often comes down to. The Breeder's Cup notwithstanding, a Belmont with a Triple Crown at stake is the Supernova of racing.

I recently acquired the coveted All Horse Racing Fantasy Horse Files Bundle (you can too by clicking here) but have been very busy and therefore unable to really sit down and set up a good race. The opportunity finally availed itself tonight, and I came up with a doozy.

Show me someone with a genuine dislike of two-time Horse of the Year Cigar, and I'll show you a non-racing fan. He's one of the all-time greats, and the quintessential example of how a horse doesn't have to be great at 3 to achieve immortality.