Horse Racing Fantasy Community

Those of you who may not know about Sunday Silence and Easy Goer are really missing out, because they were both truly special, so if we can help spread the word about these great champions, then it can be nothing short of a good thing. The short version of their rivalry is that they faced each other 4 times in 1989. Three of those times were in the Triple Crown series. Sunday Silence won the Kentucky Derby by two-and-a-half on a muddy track. They hooked up again in an amazing stretch battle two weeks later in the Preakness, and it was Sunday Silence winning again, but this time by a nose in one of the greatest renewals in Preakness history. Sunday Silence now had a chance to become the 12th Triple Crown in history and the first since Affirmed in 1978. But over 12 furlongs Easy Goer got his revenge. Running the second-fastest Belmont in history to Secretariat's 2:24 flat, Easy Goer beat Sunday Silence by 8 lengths in 2:26 flat. Their 4th and final meeting didn't come until the Breeders' Cup Classic almost 4 months later, and Sunday Silence won by a neck to run his head-to-head record against his foe to 3-1.
However, people to this day wonder about that final meeting because while Sunday Silence prepped for that Classic by winning the 10 furlong Super Derby on Sept 24th, Easy Goer's prep was the then 12 furlong Jockey Club Gold Cup, which he won going away. Many think that Easy Goer's win in this race dulled his speed for the 10 furlong Classic, which was run on November 4th that year.
I decided to indulge my fantasy about these two great horses and run them in a match race on a fast dirt track over a mile and a quarter to see what would happen. For this particular fantasy I chose not to ride either horse and just see what happened. The resulting race was a classic! As expected Sunday Silence went to the lead and Easy Goer was content to stalk his rival, staying about 2 lengths off the pace. The first quarter was a solid but not spectacular :23&4. As they ran along the backstretch Easy made one attempt early to close on Sunday Silence, but that seemed to energize the black horse, and he re-established his 2 length lead. His half-mile fraction was still not that fast at :47&2 and he was increasing the pace at that point. The 3/4's went in 1:10&3, again with Easy Goer hanging back about 2.5 lengths back. The margin stayed that way through the final quarter pole, when Sunday Silence posted an impressive mile-fraction of 1:35 flat!
But that's when Easy Goer started making his move. He had been running free and easy up to that point, and he unleashed a powerful move on the far turn. By the time the two came to the 8th pole, Sunday Silence was only a head in front. At the 3/16th's pole they were head and head but Easy Goer seemed to have his rival's measure. In the final hundred yards Easy Goer surged ahead with tremendous power, and at the wire won by 3/4's of a length. The time for this great match was a torrid 1:58&4/5th's, just one second off the world record for that distance.

Our game offers you the chance to run this match as well. Would it turn out this way everytime? No way. With these two greats I have the feeling they would always be competitive. Click here so you can add these great thoroughbreds to your game and then run your own version of a match race in our online racing game! And you don't have to run the race at 10 furlongs, either. Try a mile and a half, too, so you can see if Sunday Silence just wasn't in Easy Goer's league at that distance.