Post by *Ripley* on Jun 3, 2013 13:12:33 GMT -5
Many of us look upon the Hall of Fame as an elite group of horses who have fought the odds of thoroughbred racing to become legends. To many of us, achieving such fame is unimaginable, unprecedented and a once in a life time achievement. To some of us it is an end of career goal that some are worthy of and others are not. Greatness cannot be defined because it is expressed in so many different ways. Some are career greats, others are a single season great, many touched the heart, captured the mind and inspire even after they have left the racetrack.
There has been uncertainty of recent as to what makes a horse great enough to be considered for racing's highest honor. What really defines a champion? In thirteen years of racing we have named only twenty-four horses to the Hall of Fame. Some horses are extremely contested nowadays: most recently Sillenia who split a 4-3 vote and just by the skin of her teeth got into the Hall.
Did you know Bank On Silver, True Enough, Sweet Stalker, Everyday Hero and Wild Flower never won a Breeders Cup race? Wild Flower finished third. Sweet Stalker finished third in two different races. Bank On Silver third and eighth. And True Enough and Everyday Hero never even knew the meaning of Breeders Cup. Sillenia and Impressario top the charts with four Breeders Cup wins and yet Sillenia still had to fight tooth and nail to make it into the Hall even after four hard-fought career seasons.
Only two of the Hall of Fame horses have won half of their career starts. There is a single grade two horse in the Hall of Fame. Two horses never ran past their three year old season. There is a horse who made 113 career starts and another who only ran 33. Some had broodmare careers better than their actual racing careers. And very few of their foals have surpassed the original horses achievements. I will take you through the early profiles of our Hall of Famers, the statistics and then the later profiles. I will reach a conclusion based on my analysis and hopefully many of you will find yourself in agreement.
To read on go to the Hall of Fame section under Racing.