The Best Rivalry in the 80's

Since I just don’t have too much interesting to say about the Phillies, I’m going off topic. I wrote about Curlin a few weeks ago, and as part of looking for clips to illustrate his career, I stumbled on a lot of great video.

This video below is the 1989 Preakness: Sunday Silence versus Easy Goer- and in my opinion, the best of their four big match-ups: Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont and Breeders Cup Classic. And probably the best “classic” horse race I ever saw- complete with yet another classic call by that American treasure Tom Durkin (ed. note: you can listen to another awesome Tom Durkin call here):



As with any great rivalry, you can’t think of one without the other- the great thoughbred rivalry of the 1980’s. After this narrow miss above, Easy Goer did get the Belmont- setting up this final clash billed as the Race of the Decade:

America's Filly

In a really thrilling race- particularly if you had $30 on the filly at 4 to 1- Rags to Riches won the Belmont Stakes. Even if you are not a fan of thoroughbred racing, take a minute and click on the video replay. Listen to, and enjoy, Tom Durkin going nuts, literally screaming craziness about the battle of the sexes, desperate driving finishes, etc. Our girl got it done- and now deserves to be on both the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time magazines.



There is no cheapening it either. You can’t say the favorite colt Curlin didn’t fire. If Rags to Riches ran the last quarter in a superior sub-24 seconds, Curlin matched her almost stride for stride. So if she fired, he did too. He’s a real nice colt, he ran a real nice race, but the filly is clearly bred to be a twelve furlong machine- and she ran it out.

Hard Spun was the other contender- and for the second classic race in a row- got a ride by one of those dense little elves that can only be described as "nonsensical". The field ran a tactical race for a mile (translated: they ran real slow), and Hard Spun cannot be allowed to not set the pace in that sort of scenario. He isn’t a tactical colt- he is a runner- and someday they’ll get a jockey up here that understands that- and he’ll win one of these things.

The rumor is the filly will face the boys again- but is pointed toward the Alabama at Saratoga- the summer’s prestige race for the girls- as opposed to the Travers. But she is probably ticketed for the Classic in November- a little juice for a sport that needs some.