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The Greatest Rivalries of All Time

One of the greatest gifts that sports bestows upon us is the rivalry. To be able to temporarily unleash your hate on something that cannot hate you back is to be happy forever. With the exception of boxing, no sport understands the concept of a rivalry better than thoroughbred racing. So, I have decided to count down the greatest rivalries that our sport has ever seen.

Swaps vs. Nashua

Though 3,000 miles separates New York and Southern California, the two places will always be interconnected through racing. Swaps, who no one gave a chance to beat the great East Coast favorite Nashua, easily handled his rival in what was one of the greatest performances in the history of the Kentucky Derby. The California bred rewarded the people (mainly Californians) who backed him at the windows with 3-1 odds. The experts slowly but surely came around to realizing just how good the chestnut colt really was. Of course, history repeated itself this year when another Cal-bred was dismissed by the experts only to win convincingly at the Derby.

Meadow Star vs. Light Light

“Meadow Star is tested, Light Light is right at her neck” This was the commentary at the three-eights pole! Yes, Corey Nakatani and Light Light battled with Jerry Bailey and Meadow Star for three grueling furlongs and at the end of it all both sides thought they had won. These two fillies will never be as good as Ruffin or Rachel Alexandra, but did Ruffin or Rachel have to run all out from the three-eighths pole to the wire? Meadow Star and Light Light earn this spot because they captured why we love racing in a single race.

Sunday Silence vs. Easy Goer

You never want to mention the 1989 Kentucky Derby to a New Yorker, and you never want to mention the 1989 Belmont Stakes to a Southern Californian. I almost got the death stare from my grandmother for pointing out that Sunday Silence defeated Easy Goer three times while Easy Goer defeated Sunday Silence just once. In typical New York fashion, she blamed all three losses on Pat Day and told me that EG simply has more ability, which is why he had the biggest margin of victory in the series; his emphatic 8.5 lengths win in the Belmont. There are two topics in life that get people riled up like nothing else, politics and the Easy Goer/Sunday Silence rivalry. I for one will never say a nice word about Silence if I am around relatives, it just doesn’t work out.

Affirmed vs. Alydar

How on earth does a former amateur boxer wind up in a rivalry with the royal family of horse racing?  Honestly, Affirmed was the better horse, this rivalry would not even make the list if it wasn’t for the fact that Wolfson and the folks at Calumet were so different that it was comically awkward to see them next to one another.  Unlike so many rivalries today, both sides seemed to have nothing but nice words to say about the other which is amazing considering that Calumet would’ve had another Triple Crown champion had it not been for Louis Wolfson and the gritty, dogged, and determined Affirmed.

Claiborne Farm vs Everyone else

The silks are classic like New York Yankee pinstripes, the farm is steeped in history and the greatest sire in the world right now lives there. Claiborne Farm is the closest thing we have to the Yankees or Manchester United. When Zenyatta lost to Blame in the Breeder’s Cup Classic, fans of the filly quickly wanted to sweep the defeat under the rug and bestow horse of the year honors on her anyway.  When Claiborne argued that they won the Classic and should win horse of they year in the process, many were outraged, but why were they outraged? Did they really believe that Blame was undeserving of the award? Like the Yankees and Manchester United, Claiborne Farms’ commitment to excellence causes simultaneous feelings of jealousy and admiration in everyone connected to the sport. They make everyone around them better by forcing all of their competitors to raise their respective games; even Zenyatta herself would have to agree.

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