Horse Racing Fantasy Community

I decided to rev up the engines of our online racing game recently and set up a match race of two serious heavyweights in the annals of horse racing. A lot of people think of Bold Ruler simply as the sire of Secretariat. Many people also think that Bold Ruler and Dr. Fager were world-class milers, but couldn't go much beyond that. I'm here to tell you that's not true at all. In fact, both horses were much more than than just milers. Both of these thoroughbred champions won Horse of the Year, Bold Ruler in 1957, Dr. Fager in 1968. Both horses were frontrunners, great sprinters with blazing raw speed that could post world-class times up to and including a mile and a quarter. Bold Ruler routinely turned in sub 2:02 times at a mile and a quarter, and while carrying weight of 134 pounds. Dr. Fager twice broke 2:00 over the same distance, and he also routinely carried more than 130 pounds as well. Both horses raced in eras known for extreme weight assignments in the handicap division, so to be any good as a horse over the age of three in the 1950s or 1960s, horses had to be able to carry the proverbial truckload and win. Bold Ruler and Dr. Fager both did just that.
But just because the myth that all these two great horses could do was go does not mean that they weren't among the greatest in history at a mile and under. One glance at their respective Past Performance Charts makes denial of that concept delusional. So with that in mind I decided to set them up in a match race in our online racing game right here at Horse Racing Fantasy. Both of these horses thrived at Aqueduct. They both posted then-record times in the Vosburgh there, and they both won many other races there. As such, I decided that the match race would be held at Aqueduct on a fast track going a mile. In other words, this was two absolute speedballs going head-to-head at their favorite distance at one of their favorite tracks. I salivated at the prospect of what would happen!

The race was an all-out war! At the break both horses, pure frontrunners, fought fiercely for the lead. Dr. Fager was too tenacious early, though, and Bold Ruler was content to drop back as Dr. Fager put up a staggering opening quarter of 21&2, with Bold Ruler 3 lengths back. The good Doctor continued flying down the backstretch of Aqueduct, posting a half-mile of 44 and a 3/4's in 1:07&3. But Bold Ruler never fell behind by more than 4 lengths during that stretch. Behind by 3 lengths, quarter pole he started to make his move. As Dr. Fager passed the 8th pole, he posted a 7/8th's split of 1:19 flat, and Bold Ruler was closing, behind by 3/4's of a length. That margin had shrunk to a half-length at the 16th pole. The two horses really battled it out in the final 70 yards of the race, going head and head, exchanging the lead with nearly every stride! When they hit the wire, it was Bold Ruler by a head in a final time of 1:33 flat, only 4/5th's of a second off of Dr. Fager's world-record! It seems that, in this particular case, the great Dr. Fager's legendary competitive fire to get the lead turned on a switch within him that he couldn't turn off: that first quarter of the race when Bold Ruler contested the lead ignited Dr. Fager's engine. He really turned on the afterburners, as the fractions suggest. However, even a great horse like that has to tire a little bit when he runs that fast. Most other horses trailing would have burned out completely, but Bold Ruler is also a great miler and also had that great speed, and was able to prevail just barely. This is the kind of race that I think I need to run again a few times, don't you think?

If you want to run this exact same match race and see what would happen for yourself (in other words, indulge your fantasy), all you have to do is visit our Horse Racing Store and pick up these two Hall-of-Fame horses, and many others, for such a low price that you will hardly believe it!