Equine Rock Stars

LUKE said:
I watched Mtoto's King George win a few months ago and was amazed at the off the pace ride he got -you don't really see it with proven Group 1horses these days -definitely not over 10 or 12 furlongs.
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I just watched that again Luke. Really so impressive, and it didn't look like those at the front were slowing, pace seemed fair, not a collapse job. He was quite a horse was Mtoto. His Prince Of Wales win was similar, showed an unreal turn of foot. His turn of foot 1.5f out is amazing. I still get a thrill watching his wins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYigJ2UQNDI

Then 12 months later https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmwp4vtChsw
 
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Missunited.
The combination of Ml Winters and this mare proved irresistible to many.
Her Goodwood win got the cheer of the century at Galway that day as 2 euro ew punters had fifties and sixties on her , enough to nearly break Ray Mulvaney oncourse , financially and spiritually.
Her Ascot Gold Cup near miss at 50/1 was pure rock n roll also.

Apache Gold as a 55 rated flat handicapper had a near cult following both among ATR presenters and on here when you consider his rating.
 
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So You Think
Came to Ballydoyle with a huge reputation.
I was at The Curragh for his Irish debut and he looked like a stallion in from the prairie; big and muscular with a wild mane and tail .
He did not disappoint on the racecourse either running to his rating whenever he ran.
 
Rock Stars are the Frankel's, the Flightline's, the Zeyatta's, The Sprinter Sacre's of racing that you wouldn't think twice about going to see them is you had the chance.

Constitution Hill fits the bill. Shishkin doesn't even come close. neither did Altior. They had more grind than Wow,

Go way back Arkle Mill House and Dunkirk drew huge crowds Flyingolt to a lesser degree.

Red Rum was a true Rock Star
 
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edgt said:
So You Think
Came to Ballydoyle with a huge reputation.
I was at The Curragh for his Irish debut and he looked like a stallion in from the prairie; big and muscular with a wild mane and tail .
He did not disappoint on the racecourse either running to his rating whenever he ran.
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My main recollection of So You Think was when he beat Carlton House in the POW. I was at Hamilton races watching on the big screen and as it became clear CH was getting beat, one of the punters started screaming at top of his voice "F*ck the queen, f*ck the queen".
 
Tanlic said:
Rock Stars are the Frankel's, the Flightline's, the Zeyatta's, The Sprinter Sacre's of racing that you wouldn't think twice about going to see them is you had the chance.

Constitution Hill fits the bill. Shishkin doesn't even come close. neither did Altior. They had more grind than Wow,

Go way back Arkle Mill House and Dunkirk drew huge crowds Flyingolt to a lesser degree.

Red Rum was a true Rock Star
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I'd say they are THE superstars tbh Tanlic. But equine rock stars can be the lesser lights too. My rockstar was Mtoto as I posted, he was such an exciting horse, he probably wasn't a horse with the highest ever rating, but he was just so bloody brilliant. I've seen many good horses that have impressed me without them being near 140+ ratings. One thing that ratings don't do is rate guts and the will to win. You could have a horse that might win 10 on the bounce, get a lowish rating, but in every race, showed a will to not be passed. Then again you could say..the horse just has to win at the very highest level a few times to be a rockstar. Where do you draw the line of rockstarishness? If we start at the top then you have such as Arkle, Secretariat, Frankel, Flightline etc. Those horses are so so special. Then behind those you have so many horses that were just a few lbs behind them purely on ratings. Brigadier Gerard, Mill Reef, Dancing Brave, Kauto Star, Denman, Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Monksfield etc. I think sometimes it just goes on how you yourself get attached to a horse of that level. On the flat for instance, the visual of Dancing Brave winning the Arc is carved on my brain, each time I watch it I just think that is the best flat race win ever. I think we all get allied to certain horses even if they weren't ever the highest rated.

I will use an example on the forum, Grassy's favourite equine rockstar, just guessing here:D, is Hurricaine Fly, I think I will be right on that. He got attached to that horse as we all get latched onto certain horses. I love Persian War from the past, and I wasn't even into racing then. I used to watch the teleprinter 1969-72 for the footy results about 4.30 on a Saturday, they used to swap between the teleprinter and horse racing results. I fookin hated it, each screen would come up with the result of a horse race, went on forever. One horse I certainly knew about then was ..Persian War..he seemed to win every week. Funny how stuff gets into your head. As soon as I got into racing in the mid 70s I found out about Persian War and since then he has always been a favourite of mine. I never understood who "Bar" was:D
 
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