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Thursday, September 1, 2011

Are All Victories The Same?

Now that the amazing filly See You at Peelers has tasted defeat after 22 dominating victories, the question must be asked are all victories created equally.  Clearly, See You At Peelers is a special horse; one we would all pray to get but is the twenty-two races misleading? 

In 2010, See You at Peelers competed thirteen times, an amazing number of starts these days for two year olds.  However, out of those thirteen victories, nine starts were against state breds, in NYSS action.  In 2011, See You at Peelers has made five starts in the NYSS and Empire Breeders Classic races out of the ten starts she made.  Some of these starts have been necessitated because there are no big races for 2yo and 3yo filly pacers each week and a races is needed, but let's not kid ourselves.  As good as the New York breeding program is, racing in a restricted race; in this case state breds is not like racing against open company where you face the nations best horses.

So out of the twenty-two victories See You at Peelers had won in the streak, it is important to note 63% of the victories were against state breds.  I think in the excitement of her win streak and harness racing looking for that next super horse, I think the racing media didn't look into the type of races she won and it is understandable.  As march as the NY breding program has improved, I suspect if she was racing against open company like she raced against at the Meadows, the win streak would have likely not gone as far as it had.

This is not meant to demean See You At Peelers' accomplishments.  In fact, if she rebounds like I suspect she will, she would get my vote for Horse of the Year and it would be a well deserved honor.  But we must be honest, while a victory is a victory, not all victories are not the same.  

Anyway, on to Tioga Downs this Sunday, where See You at Peelers looks to start a new streak.  I'll be rooting for her in this year of parity.

3 comments:

HorseRacing1 said...

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Regards

sydney horse racing

JLB said...

While I accept that you do not demean her accomplishments, I think the streak is truly remarkable, particularly because young horses are more susceptible to illness, especially when shipping extensively, and fillies can be more temperamental than their male counterparts. And, racing frequently on smaller tracks brings the possibility of having to overcome bad posts.

That Blog Guy said...

JLB,

Absolutely, I am not trying to demean her accomplishments, but I am just trying to keep things in perspective.

All I am saying it is not like she went 22 races winning against the best 2yo and 3yo fillies in North America all the time. Some races were virtual walkovers; where defeat would have required something short of a bolt of lightning.