Starting with the previous week’s blog, I have been doing a lot of thinking about how perception is reality; especially in the world of sports. There seems to be a blind acceptance of what we were told and we don’t dig further in order to uncover the truth. The best example of this is the assumption that European turf horses are almost always better than their American counterparts. This assumption is basically false.

On the World Thoroughbred Rankings, Wise Dan has miraculously clawed his way to a 129 rating which has put him in second place behind the talented mare Black Caviar. This is a marked improvement from the fall of last year when the World Thoroughbred Rankings assigned Wise Dan a rating of 124 and Frankel a rating of 140. In other words, they felt that a race between these two champions wouldn’t even be a contest.

The bias that this organization has against our turf horses is quite amusing considering that we used to stand Danzig, and most would agree that there may never be a turf sire with his uncanny ability to sire a champion and lift the breed to new heights. So, if we have stood sires like Danzig, Theatrical and Cozzene how can we be a turf-racing backwater? The answer is perception.

Exclude Del Mar, Saratoga, Keeneland , Colonial Downs and Arlington Park and you would be hard pressed to find a track that truly loves turf. Some trainers only like the money that comes with turf races and would rather we get rid of these turf contests altogether; however, the fact still remains that American turf horses are a force to be reckoned with regardless of our affinity for the surface because our commercial breeders still have a love for the surface. Still to this day, the major breeding operations in America are all willing to stand sires that have in the past or are capable in the future of producing turf milers.

Without a race to actually back it up, everything is conjecture, but Frankel and Wise Dan did have one common foe-Excelebration. Frankel beat up on Excelebration with regularity and easily was the better horse. When Excelebration came across the pond to contest the Breeder’s Cup, our own fans picked him as the favorite over Wise Dan, but Wise Dan gave Excelebration a sound beating similar to the ones he was accustomed to getting from Frankel. This all leads me to believe that Wise Dan could have run stride for stride with Frankel and possibly have beaten him. It is all conjecture, and maybe Frankel really was the superhorse everyone thought he was, but we will never know for sure.

It’s really something to see Wise Dan claim the second spot in the rankings – a sign that the World Thoroughbred Rankings understands greatness when they see it – at least to some extent – or European turf racing is very weak this year. I also have to say that the ranking committee has placed our dirt horses in the top spot for many years, so they do hold half of our racing stock in high regard.

With the Breeder’s Cup looming over the horizon, we may get to see Wise Dan take on the mile one more time if his health permits. I would also like to see the best international miler competing against him (A mile may be too much for Black Caviar). I truly believe that on our best day, we are just as good at producing world class turf milers as the rest of the world is, but we need them to run their best horses against us in order to prove that this is the case.

America will always be a dirt first, turf second racing landscape, but surprisingly this has not hindered our ability to produce world-class turf milers. I challenge Eurpean racing fans to look into our turf history and see how rich it is. The tradition that was started by great all-purpose sires was continued by horses like Danzig and now it seems like the mantle will be passed to horses like Street Sense, Hard Spun and Kitten’s Joy. Yes Europe, dirt racing will always be our primary passion, but America is a big place and there is more than enough room for a few good American turf milers.