The topic for this article is, who is the greatest race horse in the last 100 years ??? This answer can be debated forever without being correctly answered as there is no correct answer. The variables are many, opinions rage, facts can narrow it down but at the end of the day the answer will depend on who you ask. Some of the behind the scenes stories are quite remarkable. Timeform lays claim to trying to answer this perplexing question using a rating number system. This can also be debated. For the sake of this article I will mark my top 3 selections and place the rest in alphabetical order. I would love to hear our community\u2019s thoughts on their top 3 horses in the last century, please reply on the post if interested. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NO 1. Secretariat<\/span> – <\/b>Secretariat was the Muhammad Ali of racehorses, a brash and charismatic champ who was the breakaway winner of the 1973 Triple Crown. In 21 career starts, the big chestnut stallion finished first 16 times and earned a total of $1,316,808. He set a track record of 1:59 2\/5 in the 1973 Kentucky Derby, and won the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, by an astonishing 31 lengths. After his three-year-old season he was retired to stud at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. Secretariat died at the young age of 19; he was euthanized when a chronic foot disease called laminitis became too painful for him to bear. Think about this….ONE HORSE…I repeat ONE HORSE…owns ALL 3 North American TC racing records. That covers over 140 years, 420+ races and some 4,500 horses!!! The distances have remained basically the same, and considering the technical strides in training\/conditioning and track surface enhancements the past half century, it is virtually unfathomable to think that ALL 3 records could continue to stand the test of time.<\/p>\n NO 2. Man O’ War<\/span> <\/b>– Arguably the best racehorse ever to set foot on a track, Man O’ War<\/span> broke many records, defeated many high-class horses, and entertained thousands in the process. From his maiden through his last race with Sir Barton, Man o’ War stunned America with his speed, heart and courage. Three things that are critical to a racehorses character. Very few times do you get a horse that has all three. Man O’ War did, and that is what made him great. Man O’ War had 21 starts and 20 wins. The single loss on his record came from the Sanford Stakes, where he was turned sideways when the marsh barrier went up, causing him to place second in the race. By winning 20 of his 21 career starts, Man o’ War was as revered as any athlete in the world. He was to horse racing what Babe Ruth was to baseball and Jack Dempsey was to boxing. In his remarkable career, Man o’ War set three world records, two American records, two track records, and equaled another track standard. He won one race by an incredible 100 lengths and triumphed in another while carrying 138 pounds.<\/p>\n NO 3. Citation<\/span> – <\/b>Citation was one of the preeminent thoroughbred racehorses of all time. Blood-Horse magazine ranks him 3rd in the “Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century”; surpassed only by Secretariat at number two and Man o’ War at the top of the list, respectively. Citation won his first race as a two-year-old and when his career ended in 1951, he had become the first horse in history to earn winnings of over $1 million. In 45 career races he posted 32 firsts, 10 seconds, and two thirds. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>1948 Triple Crown Champion. Rated “best three year old ever” by Eddie Arcaro. Won 27 of 29 at three and could have won the other two but was held back. Defeated the two horses he lost to above in later races. Won 16 in a row. Could run on any kind of track.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n ALPHABETICAL ORDER<\/span><\/p>\n Abernant<\/span><\/b><\/span> – <\/span><\/b>Abernant is the highest rated sprinter on Timeform ratings, and joint fifth on the list overall.\u00a0Abernant was reportedly described at the sales as \u2018a little rat\u2019 by none other than Fred Darling. However the colt was a great mover, which persuaded connections, including trainer Noel Murless, to purchase him. Abernant repaid them by winning fourteen of his seventeen starts, including five of six races as a two year old. Abernant\u2019s superlative performances saw him end the season top weighted two year old in the Free Handicap. Abernant\u2019s main weapon was his devastating speed: he pushed other horses as soon as the race began and broke many long before the finish. He ended his 3 year old season the top rated three year old on 138lbs, and joint highest overall along with brilliant stayer Alycidon. Abernant retired at the end of his four year old season with \u2018nothing more to win\u2019. He was outright champion of 1950, rated at a lofty 142lbs, the same rating as undefeated dual Arc winner Ribot. Further praise came from Richards, who described him as the fastest horse he ever rode, quite some compliment considering the champions he was associated with.<\/span><\/p>\n Affirmed <\/span>– <\/b>His lineage hints of racing royalty. He is the great-great-grandson of War Admiral, the 1937 Triple Crown winner, and great-great-great grandson of Man o’War. He had 22 wins from 29 starts, but he is best remembered for his neck-and-neck battles against Alydar — especially the 1978 Belmont Stakes in which the two horses changed leads throughout the race, with Affirmed edging his competitor by just a nose’s length in the end. He beat Spectacular Bid in the 1979 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, but lost to Seattle Slew by three lengths in the 1978 Marlboro Cup Invitational Handicap.<\/p>\n All Along<\/span><\/b> – All Along was one of the greatest female thoroughbreds of all time. Bred in France, she won her only start at two. At three she won, among other prestigious Stakes, the classic Prix Vermeille and was runner up in the Japan Cup! But at four she amply demonstrated her uniqueness. In a 41-day period she won the Arc, the Canadian International, Aqueduct\u2019s Turf Classic and the Washington DC International \u2013 for which she was named Horse of the Year in both the U.S. and France, and U.S. Champion Female Turf Horse. Her four starts at five included a third in the Arc and a close second in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Turf. She retired as the highest earning female in thoroughbred history ($3,018,420).<\/p>\n Alysheba<\/span> – <\/b>He was Champion Three-Year-Old Colt of 1987 and Champion Older Male and Horse of the Year in 1988. He also retired as the richest racehorse to that time with earnings of $6,679,242 and he set track records for 10f at both Belmont and The Meadowlands. His win in the KY Derby was indeed extraordinary, but don’t forget that with just two weeks to recover from that gut-buster he raced three-wide all the way through the last turn to win the Preakness. And in the BC Classic as a three-year-old he covered more ground than Lewis and Clark to go down to Ferdinand by a nostril. Yet he bounced back better than ever as a four-year-old to win six G1s, ending his career by taking the BC Classic in the slop at Churchill. His failure in the Belmont, not withstanding, Alysheba was a remarkable racehorse.<\/p>\n Arkle<\/span> – <\/b>He was the greatest steeplechaser ever to jump fences. He carried huge weights and nearly always gave 35 pounds of weight to the other horses he raced against and still beat them. He never fell and was very rarely beaten. No other steeplechaser can be compared to Arkle ,he was,quite simply ,the best there has ever been. We will never see another chaser to compare wih Arkle, he was one of a kind, a freak of nature.<\/p>\n Bayardo<\/span> – <\/b>More than a century since he raced, Bayardo still rates as one of the all-time greats. He beat the best of his generation in England in an undefeated seven-race campaign as a two-year-old in 1908. An injury-interrupted preparation contributed to his defeat in the 2,000 Guineas (4th) and the fall of another horse hampered him in the Derby (5th). He had 11 more starts at three and won them all, including the St. Leger, and he beat older horses in the Eclipse and Champion Stakes. Highlight of his 5 \u2013 4-1-0 campaign at four was a dominating four-length victory over French champion Sea Sick II in the Ascot Gold Cup. He retired with a record of 25 \u2013 22-1-0, having won at the highest levels of competition from 5f to 20f. The National Horse racing Museum\u2019s website rates Bayardo as \u201cwithout doubt one of the best horses of the 20th century.\u201d<\/p>\n Black Caviar \u2013 <\/span><\/b>U<\/span>ndefeated in 25 races, a success record not equaled for over 100 years. She was named WTRR World Champion Sprinter in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/b>On 31 March 2011 Black Caviar was rated one of the top Thoroughbred racehorses in the world (with a 136 rating). On 3 May 2013 Black Caviar was officially listed as the world’s best horse for the period between November 1, 2012 and April 28, 2013 by the International Federation of Horse racing Authorities ( IFHA) who compile the World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings<\/a>. Overall Black Caviar is rated as the equal 76th best flat racing horse in Timeform’s limited history and the equal highest Timeform rated filly or mare ever.<\/p>\n Bold Ruler<\/span><\/b> – <\/span><\/b>Midway through his first season at 2, Bold Ruler was being hailed as a successor to Nashua<\/span>. Both were sired by Nasrullah, trained by Fitzsimmons<\/span>, and ridden by Eddie Arcaro<\/span>, clearly a winning mixture. Bold Ruler began his 3-year-old campaign by breaking a track record in the Flamingo. He then captured the Preakness, set 7 furlong and 1 1\/8 mile records in New York, and won four other stakes with 130 pounds or more. Bold Ruler was named Champion 3-Year-Old, Champion Sprinter, and Horse of the Year for 1957. In the Suburban at 4, Bold Ruler conceded 25 pounds to runner-up Clem and won the 1 1\/4 mile race. He gave a similar performance in the 1 1\/4 mile Monmouth, his final victory before injury forced his retirement.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 Brigadier Gerard<\/span><\/b> – <\/span><\/b>In a racing career which lasted from June 1970 until October 1972 he won seventeen of his eighteen races and has been rated the best racehorse trained in Britain in the 20th century. He was unbeaten as a two-year-old in 1970 when his most important win came in the Middle Park Stakes. At three he was again unbeaten, defeating Mill Reef in a famous race for the 2000 Guineas and going on to win the St. James Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes, Goodwood Mile and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a mile, before moving up in distance to win the Champion Stakes over ten furlongs. As a four-year-old he won the Lockinge Stakes, Prince of Wales Stakes and Eclipse Stakes before moving up in distance to win the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes over one and a half miles. Brigadier Gerard sustained his first and only defeat when beaten by Roberto in the inaugural running of the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n Buckpasser<\/span><\/b> – <\/span><\/b>Buckpasser ruled racing in 1965-1967. In 1965 he was Champion Two Year Old. In 1966 he was Horse of the Year, emulating his sire, Tom Fool, and in 1967 Best Older Horse. He ran in the money 30 of 31 times, 25 times 1st. Buckpasser, known for blazing speed in the stretch, set the World’s Record for the mile at Arlington Park in 1966. He was leading money winner for 2 straight years (1965, 1966) and was syndicated for stud for a then record $4,800,000. <\/span><\/p>\n Carbine<\/span><\/b><\/b>– <\/span><\/b>His success as racehorse and as an international sire has become history. He was much revered in his life time. He was so successful on and off the track that his skeleton has been displayed at the museum in Australia and New Zealand. <\/span><\/span>Carbine had a remarkable racing career scoring 33 wins out of 43 starts<\/span> including six seconds and three thirds. He failed only once in his career and that was due to his split hoof. He was popular among punters and commentators eulogize him for his stamina, speed, weight carrying ability and remarkable gameness. He was fondly nicknamed Old Jack by his fans. At the age of two, Carbine was invincible in five starts in top class races in New Zealand. He went to Australia where he was the winner of 13 starts at the age of three. At that time he won the AJC\u00a0Sydney Cup of two miles carrying about 5 kg over weight for his age. Carbine won by a head in 3 min 31 seconds in spite of the fact that he suffered interference and pushed back to last place. That era was different in terms of horse racing. Race times were slower, tracks used were very rough and jockeys rode their mount in an upright posture. Carbine’s owner cum trainer Dan O’Brien sold him for 3,000 guineas at the end of age 3. He was taken to Australia to face racing in Melbourne and Sydney. Carbine’s new trainer Walter Hickenbotham trained him to break the records when he was four. As a four year old he won two races on a single day. Carbine’s most prominent victory was the Melbourne Cup in 1890. He broke the weight record with 66 kg. Carbine defeated Highborn having 24 kg weight advantage. He was kept out of the 1891 Melbourne Cup due to a heel injury. Finally, Carbine was retired to Wallace’s stud.<\/span><\/p>\n Colin<\/span><\/b> – <\/span><\/b>Colin was in the hands of the best trainer in the United States and under his diligent care became one of the greatest horses of the Twentieth century. \u00a0Colin began his career at Belmont Park on May 29, 1907. \u00a0Sent off the betting favorite as he would be in all 15 career starts Colin bested 22 rivals. \u00a0Three days later he broke the track record for 5 furlongs at Belmont Park in the National Stakes. \u00a0Four days later Colin dueled from start to finish over a muddy track to win the Eclipse Stakes. After a three week break Colin returned to the track to win the Great Trial Stakes defeating 13 rivals without exerting much effort. \u00a0Next up was the Brighton Junior Stakes in which Colin just missed breaking the track record. \u00a0At Saratoga Colin won the Saratoga Special and Grand Union Hotel Stakes then at Sheapshead Bay he won the Futurity and Flatbush (tying the track record). \u00a0Colin finished the year with three more easy wins in the Produce Stakes, Matron and Champagne in which he set an American record for 7 furlongs on a straightaway at Belmont Park. Colin was voted Horse of the Year for 1907. Colin returned to the track for his three year old debut in the Withers Stakes and won for the 13th time in 13 tries. \u00a0Rowe pointed Colin for the Belmont Stakes a week later but after a workout he was found to have bowed a tendon. \u00a0Against the trainers wishes Colin was sent to the starting gate by is owner. \u00a0In a terrible rainstorm Colin went to the lead and held on by a desperate head. \u00a0Three weeks later Colin made his final start winning the Tidal Stakes. Colin, like is his sire and grand sire, was inducted into the Hall of Fame but the greatest compliment paid to him was by his trainer. \u00a0Rowe trained 34 champions during his Hall of Fame career but he considered Colin to be the best of them all and was quoted as saying that on his tombstone he wanted only these words: \u201cHe Trained Colin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Count Fleet – <\/span><\/b>He was a “freak” before the label was coined. He crushed his opponents by huge margins, galloping ahead of the pack, daring someone to catch him, and knowing no one could. In his racing debut on June 1, 1942, Count Fleet was left in the gate trailing the field by 50 yards, but still managed to rally for a second-place showing. It all came together in the Champagne where he set a track record when he ran beyond 6 1\/2 furlongs for the first time and was timed for the mile in 1:34 4\/5, a record for a 2-year-old that stood for 23 years. Count Fleet equaled the track record in the Pimlico Futurity and romped in the Walden by 30 lengths. After a blistering workout (1:08 1\/5) a few days before the Belmont Futurity, Count Fleet ran a disappointing third. He never lost again. As per jockey Johnny Longden “I rode every one of his 21 races, carried a whip but never dared use it,” “He might have taken off so fast he’d have left me behind. The key was to get him out on top, give him the racetrack, and let him run. It was what he loved to do more than anything else.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dahlia<\/span> – <\/b>Rarely has one horse had an impact in international horse racing comparable to this great mare. Before the Breeders\u2019 Cup, the Dubai World Cup and the Japan Cup made multi-hemispheric horse traveling a reality, Dahlia was a one-horse road show. And what a show! She won G1s in five countries (France, Ireland, England, Canada and the US); the first horse to do so. She was the first mare to top $1 million in earnings. She won down the 5f straight course at Deauville and won multiple G1s from 10f to 12f, racing clockwise and anti-clockwise, defeating Derby winners and Arc winners. She was the UK Horse of the Year at three and four and earned divisional champion honors in Europe, Ireland and the US. There have been few greater female thoroughbreds than Dahlia at her best!<\/p>\n Damascus<\/span><\/b> – <\/span><\/b>Damascus’ career record speaks for itself. He won at distances of six furlongs, seven furlongs, one mile, a mile and 70 yards, 1 1\/16 miles, 1 1\/8 miles, 1 3\/16 miles, 1 1\/4 miles, 1 1\/2 miles, and two miles. In all, he won stakes at eight different distances. He ran seven furlongs in 1:21 1\/5 (Malibu Stakes), 1 1\/8 miles in a track-record 1:46 4\/5 (American Derby), and 1 1\/4 miles in a track-record 1:59 1\/5 under 130 pounds (Brooklyn Handicap). He also equaled the track record for 1 1\/4 miles at Saratoga in the Travers, coming from 16 lengths back in the slop to win eased up by 22 lengths. And only two horses \u2013 Kelso and Prove Out \u2013 have won the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup in faster time. In the Woodward, billed as the Race of the Century, he demolished Horses of the Year and future Hall of Famers Buckpasser and Dr. Fager by 10 lengths. Twice at 4 he carried 134 pounds to victory. In one of those, the Aqueduct Stakes, he gave major stakes winner More Scents 20 pounds.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Fager<\/span> <\/b>– It wasn’t just his 18 wins from 22 starts that allowed Dr. Fager to leave his mark on U.S. horse racing. As of 2013, he remains the only horse to hold four titles in one year. He did it in 1968 when he was named horse of the year, champion handicap horse, champion sprinter and co-champion grass horse. That same year, he set a still-standing dirt track record for the one mile length in his run in the Washington Park Handicap at Arlington Park while carrying 134 pounds.<\/p>\n Easy Goer<\/span> <\/b>– Superbly bred horse with a race record to match. Never finished out of a place, 20\u201414-5-1. Won at G1 level each year he raced (2, 3 and 4). And won at the elite level from 7f to 12f. Possessed exceptional speed and stamina. At 2 won his maiden over 7f at Saratoga in 1:22 3\/5 followed by an Allowance win over 6.5f at Belmont in 1:15 2\/5 (1\/5 off the track record) \u2013 performances described by the NY Times as \u201cextraordinarily quick.\u201d Then won the G1 Cowdin in a manner causing the NYT to describe him as \u201csomething special\u201d and won the G1 Champagne (8f) in the \u201cbrilliant time\u201d (NYT) of 1:34 4\/5 \u2013 only three Champagne winners have gone faster. The next year he cruised to a 13-length victory in the Gotham, then over 8f at Aqueduct, in 1:32 2\/5 \u2013 the fastest mile ever by a 3yo, shattering Secretariat\u2019s stakes record (by a full second) and missing Dr. Fager\u2019s world record, \u201cthe most hallowed standard of time in American racing\u201d (NYT), by just one-fifth of a second. After easily accounting for the Wood Memorial, EG was upset by Sunday Silence in both the KY Derby and the Preakness but got his revenge by annihilating his nemesis in the Belmont in 2:26, a time surpassed only by Secretariat\u2019s incomparable Belmont. Sunday Silence beat him again in the BC Classic but not before EG went on a unique G1 spree winning the Travers and beating the best older horses in the Whitney, Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup. At 4 he won the G1 Suburban, giving his opponents 12 to 19 lbs., before injury forced his retirement.<\/p>\n Equipoise<\/span> – <\/b>\u201cRanked by many as a greater race horse than Man O\u2019 War.\u201d \u2013 George Kirksey, United Press correspondent, reporting on Equipoise\u2019s win in the Arlington Hcp on 22 July 1933, as published in the Pittsburgh Press (and elsewhere) on 23 July 1933. In reference to Equipoise\u2019s world record mile, the official chart of the race said he \u201cwent to the front easily and had something to spare.\u201d John Hervey, the famous racing historian of that era, wrote that not only had Equipoise won \u201cwithout having been asked for his best\u201d but that \u201cnon-official watches [showed] even faster time than that announced.\u201d It sounds like a much easier win than Queally showing Frankel the whip over most of the last 3f of the Guineas and whipping him at least four times. Re the post immediately below: Equipoise’s world record mile was run on a one-turn dirt track where he spent 2f negotiating a U-turn. Frankel did his down a straight one-mile turf track. Big advantage going straight versus going around an oval’s turn. Equipoise’s world record mile of 1:34 2\/5 or, converting it to tenths of seconds, 1:34.4, was 2.9 seconds faster than Frankel’s fastest mile of 1:37.3. That’s a margin of 14.5 lengths! And Equipoise ran his fastest mile 79 years earlier than Frankel ran his! He was named both Champion Older Horse and Horse of the Year that year, 1932, was given the same two honors again in 1933 and was named Champion Older Horse yet again in 1934. Heck of a racehorse!<\/p>\n Exterminator\u00a0 <\/span><\/b>The Binghamton Press, reporting the death of Exterminator on Wed., Sep. 26, 1945: \u201cIt was comparatively recently that Colonel [Matt J.] Winn, head of Churchill Downs and an acknowledged authority on horseflesh, ranked Exterminator as \u2018the greatest all-around American thoroughbred I ever saw.\u2019 He said he based his choice on \u2018speed, courage, stamina, intelligence and perhaps more important, durability\u2019.\u201d Grand old horse who exhibited rare durability and longevity. Won as a two-year-old and as a nine-year-old, and every year in between! Won the KY Derby at three and was U.S. Horse of the Year at seven! Was U.S. Champion Older Male Horse at five, six and seven. Won the then prestigious Saratoga Cup a unique four straight years. The Hall of Fame website, and other sources, suggest his 33 Stakes wins remains a record to this day. Long after Exterminator finally retired, Hall of Fame jockey Willie Knapp, who rode him in his early years and later trained him, said: \u201cWhen he was at his best Exterminator could have beaten Man o\u2019 War or Citation or Kelso or any other horse that ever lived \u2026\u201d Knapp had a unique credibility in making that comparison to Man o\u2019 War: he was the only jockey to have beaten Man o\u2019 War when he rode Upset to victory in the 1919 Sanford at Saratoga.<\/p>\n Forego<\/span><\/b> – <\/span><\/b>Born on 30 April 1970, Forego was an incredibly successful thoroughbred racehorse in America. During the course of his career, the bay gelding won the Woodward Stakes four times, the Brooklyn Handicap three times, the Widener Handicap and the Metropolitan Handicap twice in a row and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Carter Handicap, the Suburban Handicap and the Marlboro Cup once. He also ran and won a number of other, less prestigious races. He was owned and bred by Mrs. Martha Gerry\u2019s Lazy F Ranch, trained by three different trainers over the years and raced by two main jockeys. Forego was born in the same year as racing great Secretariat, and while Secretariat was a comfortable and fast three-year-old, Forego was still growing into his immense body. This meant that many of his early races were not all that successful. His size and unruly behavior also led to him being gelded so that he could be raced more successfully. Thus, his three-year-old year was dismal but he soon started to shine as a four-year-old. During his time spent on the racetrack, Forego started 57 times and won 34 races. He also placed in nine races and came in third seven times. By the time his racing career ended he had earned a massive $1,938,957. He was also noted for his versatility, winning anything from 7 furlongs to 2 miles. He was also often weighted with as much as 130 pounds because of his immense size but still he became a champion handicap horse. Some of the racing awards he received are US Champion Sprint Horse (1974), US Champion Older Male (1974\u20131977) and US Horse of the Year (1974-1976). He was inducted into the US Racing Hall of Fame in 1979 and is ranked as 8th on the list of Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th<\/span><\/p>\n Frankel<\/span><\/b> – <\/span><\/b>Frankel was unbeaten in his fourteen-race career and was the highest-rated racehorse in the world from May 2011. In 2010 he won on debut before winning the Royal Lodge Stakes by ten lengths and the Dewhurst Stakes. As a three-year-old, he won the 2000 Guineas by six lengths, won the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood and won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot. Frankel extended his unbeaten record in 2012 by winning the Lockinge Stakes, the Queen Anne Stakes and the Sussex Stakes for a second time. In August he was moved up to a mile and a quarter for the first time and won the International Stakes at York. In October he won the Champion Stakes at Ascot, again over a mile and a quarter, following which his retirement from racing was announced. After his win in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot in October 2011, Frankel was given a rating of 143 by Timeform, the highest mark awarded by the organization in over forty years and their fourth highest of all time behind Sea Bird, Brigadier Gerard and Tudor Minstral. \u00a0<\/span>In June 2012, following his win in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, Timeform raised his provisional rating to 147, making him the highest-rated horse in the organization’s history. In January 2013 Timeform announced that his final rating at the end of his racing career was also 147.<\/span>The <\/span>World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings<\/span><\/a> Committee rank Frankel as the best racehorse they have assessed since their ratings were introduced in 1977, by a margin of two points. In January 2013 they announced that their ratings had been re calibrated, since it was believed that in the early years of the scheme horses had been treated more generously than more recently. Frankel’s rating was confirmed at 140. Since 1900, of British-bred racehorses only Ribot has won more races and finished his career unbeaten. Frankel’s record of nine consecutive Group 1 wins is unsurpassed and has been equaled only by the U.S.A. filly Zenyatta. Frankel’s performance in the 2000 Guineas has been described as “one of the greatest displays on a British racecourse”. British bloodstock agency McKeever Bloodstock and Banstead Manor Stud Manager Philip Mitchell have suggested that Frankel has a valuation of \u00a3100 million, an estimate which may be “conservative”.<\/span><\/p>\n Gallant Fox<\/span> <\/b>– As Gallant Fox left the racetrack and headed for stud, where he would become the only Triple Crown winner to sire a Triple Crown winner (Omaha), The Blood-Horse wrote of him: “Since the retirement of Man o’ War no horse has captured the imagination of the American public as has Gallant Fox. After a relatively light campaign as a two-year-old, he swept like a meteor across the racing sky of 1930 and when he was retired for all times after his bloodless triumph in the Jockey Club Gold Cup he was more than a racehorse – he was an institution.” Gallant Fox not only won the Triple Crown in 1930, he won every important sophomore Stakes race except the Travers in which, famously, he was runner-up to 100-to-1 shot Jim Dandy. His 10 \u2013 9-1-0 season saw him sweep the Wood Memorial, Preakness, KY Derby, Belmont, Arlington Classic, Dwyer and Lawrence Realization before conquering older foes in the Saratoga Cup and Jockey Club Gold Cup. He retired as a three-year-old with the highest earnings of any thoroughbred to that time, $328,165. In 17 career starts he thus had average earnings per start of $19,303 \u2026 a stunning statistic for that time.<\/span><\/p>\n Isinglass –<\/span> <\/b>Britain\u2019s top juvenile of 1892, Isinglass went on to win the Triple Crown the following year. But coming back in distance from the 12f of the St. Leger, he ended his three-year-old campaign with the only defeat of his career when runner-up in the 8f Lancashire Plate. At 4 he won the Princess of Wales\u2019s, Eclipse and Jockey Club Stakes. And he won the Ascot Gold Cup at 5. He retired 12 \u2013 11-1-0, winning at distances from 5f to 20f, winning what are now G1s each year he raced (2, 3, 4 and 5), and earning 58,655 pounds which stood as the world record for 28 years (surpassed by Zev in 1923) and the UK record for 57 years (surpassed by Tulyar in 1952). This was a great racehorse!<\/p>\n Invasor<\/span><\/b> – Bred in Argentina, he initially raced in Uruguay where he was unbeaten in five starts including that country\u2019s three-year-old Triple Crown. Bought by Sheikh Hamdan he was whisked off Dubai where he suffered his only defeat in the UAE Derby. As a four-year-old he rattled off five straight G1 wins in the US culminating with his triumph in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic. Then he won a sixth straight G1 in the Dubai World Cup. His career comprised: 12 races, on seven different tracks, on three continents, 11 wins (nine G1) over distances from 5.5f to 12.5f, earnings of US$7.8 million, and US Horse of the Year honors.<\/p>\n John Henry<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>– <\/b>After a very inauspicious start<\/span>,<\/span> <\/b>John Henry’s career spiraled in high gear for 4 years with wins in important races like the Santa Anita Handicap (twice) and the Arlington Million (twice plus a second place finish) with success at the highest levels of competition on both dirt and turf. He went out a winner in 1984 at age 9 with four straight stakes wins. The plan was for him to race in the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Turf, but an injury forced his retirement only a month before that race. A brief attempt was made at a comeback when he was 10 years old, but the injury flared up again and his retirement was made permanent.John Henry’s final record was 83 starts, 39 wins, 15 seconds, and 9 thirds with $6,497,947 in earnings. He won seven Eclipse Awards from 1980 through 1984 including Horse of the Year twice. At the time of his retirement, he was the highest money earning thoroughbred of all time. <\/span><\/p>\n Kelso<\/span> –\u00a0 <\/span><\/b>1960-1964 Horse of the Year, five time Jockey Club Gold Cup winner for 2 miles against the best horses in the world. Still holds the record for 2 miles and also holds the record for 1 1\/2 miles on turf at 2:23 4\/5 faster than Secretariat’s Belmont, carried over 130 lbs 24 times. Handicap Triple Crown winner, won 39 of 63, placing in the money 54 times. Ranked best horse of any age by Eddie Arcaro who rode two Triple Crown winners, Citation and Whirlaway. Not to take away from other greats, Kelso proved himself for six years against the 60,000 thoroughbred\u2019s in the world by becoming the highest money winner. No other horse in history duplicates Kelso’s record.<\/p>\n Kingston Town<\/span><\/b> – <\/span><\/b>He is the only horse to win the\u00a0Cox Plate three times. Kingston Town won 30 races from 41 starts and retired with prize money totaling in excess of $1.6 in the 1980’s.<\/span> An inaugural inductee into horse racing’s Hall Of Fame Kingston Town had serious leg injuries for much of his career, and only raced during the spring in Melbourne during his last three years of racing. Any talk of Australasia’s greatest racehorses will always see the wonderful black horse, Kingston Town at the forefront of any discussion. One of the original five inductees into Australian Horse Racing’s Hall Of Fame, Kingston Town won 30 races, including 14 Group 1 events, and was the first million dollar earner of the Australian turf.<\/span><\/p>\n Ksar<\/span> – <\/b>Ksar was the first horse to win the Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe twice \u2013 in 1921, as a three-year-old, and again in 1922. He won what became G1 races each year he raced (2, 3 and 4), including the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) and the Prix Royal-Oak (St. Leger). He retired with career stats of 15 \u2013 11-3-0. Some reports say he surpassed Isinglass\u2019s world record earnings but other reports dispute that. It is indisputable, however, that Ksar was one of Europe\u2019s greatest racehorses in the period between the World Wars.<\/p>\n Miesque<\/span> – <\/b>A dual G1 winner as a juvenile in France, she was that country\u2019s Champion Two-Year-Old-Filly in 1986. At three she won the English 1,000 Guineas and the French equivalent, the Poule d\u2019Essai des Pouliches, before devastating a field of mostly older males in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile at Hollywood Park in a track record 1:32 4\/5. At four she continued to win at the highest level in France before returning to the US to score another devastating victory in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile at Churchill Downs \u2013 the first horse to win two BC races. She never finished off the board (16 \u2013 12-3-1) with 10 of her 12 wins being G1s. In her three seasons of racing she won nine end-of-year Champion awards on two continents.<\/p>\n Mill Reef – <\/span><\/b>Mill Reef remains the only racehorse ever to win the Derby, Eclipse, King George and Prix de L`Arc de Triomphe. He won 12 of his 14 races. His record of six consecutive Group One victories lasted for thirty years until Rock of Gibraltar equaled and then bettered it in 2002. Although Mill Reef`s first race was a five furlong event at Salisbury in May 1970, he showed some of genius to come by slamming the 2-9 Lester Piggott ridden favorite Fireside Chat by four lengths. Stepped up in class Mill Reef then won the six furlong Coventry Stakes at Ascot by eight lengths. His next race was the Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-Lafitte and there Mill Reef suffered one of the only two defeats of his career when beaten a short head by My Swallow, ridden by Lester Piggott. Back in England, Mill Reef then proceeded to win three of the most prestigious two year old races on the calendar – the six furlong Gimcrack Stakes at York, the six furlong Imperial Stakes at Kempton and, in his last race of the season, the seven furlong Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket. His 10 length win in the Gimcrack was widely regarded as the outstanding performance by a two year old all season and Mill Reef was given 9 stone 6 pounds in the Free Handicap, one pound behind My Swallow and one pound ahead of Brigadier Gerard. He was one of the winter favorites for both the 2000 Guineas and the Derby. By the end of 1970 Mill Reef, sporting his distinctive white nose-band, had made Mr Mellon`s colors of black with a gold cross at the front and back a familiar sight in the winners enclosures following the leading two year old races. The British racing public had enjoyed a special year with Nijinsky winning the Triple Crown. 1971 was to be Mill Reef`s year. This was a vintage time in English horse racing. Mill Reef started favorite at 6\/4 with My Swallow at 2-1 and Brigadier Gerard at 11\/2. Others in the six horse field included Minsky, the much touted brother of Nijinsky. <\/span>At the time Brigadier Gerard`s three length victory over Mill Reef may have been seen as a bit of an upset but Brigadier Gerard is now regarded, with Tudor Minstrel, as one of the top milers in Britain since the Second World War. Mill Reef was never beaten again, going on to win six Group One races in a row.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Nashua<\/span> – <\/b>He <\/b>won his first race, a maiden, and his last race, the Jockey Club Gold Cup \u2013 his second successive victory in that prestigious event. He won from 5f to 16f. He equaled the 6f track record at Belmont, set a new 9.5f track record at Pimlico in the Preakness and broke the track and North American record for 16f in his second JCGC at Belmont. Nashua was the second thoroughbred to reach $1 million in earnings (after Citation) and retired in 1956 as the breed\u2019s richest performer to that time with a career bank of $1,288,565. He was also the first thoroughbred sold for a seven-figure amount when a breeding syndicate bought him, while still racing, for $1,251,200. His 8 \u2013 6-2-0 juvenile campaign saw him voted US Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. He dominated US racing at three, setting a new sophomore earnings record ($752,550), shattering the Preakness record, winning the Belmont by 9 lengths, beating some of the best older horses in the first of his two Jockey Club Gold Cup victories, and \u2013 most notably \u2013 reversing his loss to Swaps in the KY Derby by thrashing the Derby winner in their famous match race in Chicago. He was voted US Champion Three-Year-Old Colt and Horse of the Year.<\/p>\n Native Dancer<\/span> <\/b>– In his three-year career spanning 1952 through 1954, Native Dancer lost only one race: The 1953 Kentucky Derby, thus costing him the Triple Crown. He had 21 wins from 22 starts in his nearly perfect career, which was cut short by a foot injury. Despite the 1953 Derby loss, he was named that year’s Champion Three Year Old Colt by the thoroughbred racing association. T.V. Guide gave his second place to Ed Sullivan as the biggest attraction on television. Horse racing legend dictates his ghost still haunts Churchill Downs — the home of the Kentucky Derby.<\/p>\n![\"image001\"](\"http:\/\/blacktypebugler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/image0019.jpg\")
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