What do you consider the BEST HORSE, JOCKEY OR TRAINER RIVALRIES of ALL TIME? Any era or generation......
For instance: there was Seabiscuit v War Admiral, Man O War v Upset, Secretariat v Sham, Affirmed v Alydar, etc....
My personal favorite was Sham v Secretariat. Both horses were the cream of their crop. Sham "shadowed" Secretariat throughout the 1973 Triple Crown Races. Sham never gave up in any of his races and ran with a TON of heart. Even got close to the GREAT Secretariat a time or two.
It's too bad that Sham had to go against the incredible Secretariat. If not for Secretariat, in my opinion, Sham would have been HOY for 1973.
Who are your picks?
General, you right on target! Unfortunately racing today is not going to feature too many rivalries because they're racing less and picking their spots accordingly. Breeder's Cup day, alas, seems the only time a true rivalry race may be run anymore these days. That said, my vote would go to Affirmed-Alydar, as well.
Ken
Sunday Silence vs. Easy Goer 1989.. :D
What a Rivalry, I remember rooting for Sunday Silence, this was the 1st triple crown I ever watched I was 9 years old.
Gosh, Upset got lucky and beat, Man O' War once. Only once, although they met a few other times. I wouldn't call this a rivalry though. Upset wasn't that good.
Hard to match the rivalry between Afirmed and Alydar. I agree with others on this combo.
I broke my "maiden" with this combo as well.. I was also nine.. lmao.. whens your bday?.. :D :D
December 6th...I was so Disappointed after the Belmont when Sunday Silence Didn't win.
sunline vs northernly
sunline the great mare front runner vs northernly hard ass grinder .... who never lost to sunline beat her in 2 cox plates and beat her on a track where she was suppose to be unbeatable at her perfect distance (1600 ) and had it easy in the front but northernly grinded her down like the champ that he is ... to bad we never got to see the potential of northerly 2 great champions of the south (personally i think northerly was better never lost to her )
a rivalry requires two horses to meet at least twice. so by that standard theres two rivalries that occured in 2007 that people don't seem to remember. which both involved street sense the first when he faced any given saturday 3 times and bested him all three times even though ags had took him to the wire in the tampa bay derby and was nipped by ss at the line. then there was ss and hs who met 4 times and ss winning 2 of those times when he beat hs home in both the ky derby and the preakness stakes and hard spun beat him home in the ky cup classic and the bc classic. well there was three when curlin beat street sense in two of their three meetings in the preakness and bc classic, after street sense beat curlin in the ky derby.
ss= street sense
ags= any given saturday
hs=hard spun
I remember the race and year well and you are right. What a great rivalry. Sunday Silence and Easy Goer. We had a bad earthquake in October of that year and my house was almost in the epicenter. Enough about that.
Anyway, I'm sure I have all three of the 1989 Triple Crown races on VHS tape in the attic. Two hours of coverage, each race. I'll have to look.
Definately Rachel Alexandra vs Zenyatta
--Wait--What's That---They haven't faced each other yet---Ohh--Nevermind
Probably Affirmed-Alydar for me, but SS-EG is close second