The 2011 Breeders’ Cup is the 28th edition. The Breeders’ Cup Classic has had some finishes that qualify as classics. The opinion here is that the three best were run in 1989, 2000, and 2001. Two of these involved Tiznow.
In 1989, the 3-year-olds Sunday Silence and Easy Goer had battled one another in the Triple Crown events, with Sunday Silence winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes and Easy Goer getting a measure of revenge by handily taking the Belmont Stakes. In the Breeders’ Cup, dark was beginning to engulf Gulfstream Park when these two future Hall of Fame colts met for the fourth and last time. Sunday Silence was able to hold off a rapidly closing Easy Goer to win by what Tom Durkin famously called “a desperate neck.” (Click here to watch the race.)
The first Breeders’ Cup Classic of the 21st century, held at Churchill Downs, was a battle royal between two 3-year-olds that have proved to be among the top sires of their generation, both standing in the United States. Tiznow, a horse with a less than stellar pedigree, met the blue-blooded multiple Group I winning Irish-owned champion Giants’ Causeway. Also in the race was the 2000 Kentucky Derby victor Fusaichi Pegasus and the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Cat Thief. Tiznow held off a furious late challenge by Giants’ Causeway to win by a nose. Giants’ Causeway showed his mettle by traveling from Europe to a different time zone and racing on dirt. Tiznow is in the American Hall of Fame. (Click here to watch the race.)
In 2001, Tiznow was back in the Classic at Belmont Park. Similar to his victory a year earlier, he had to hold off a formidable European contender, the 4-year-old Sakhee, who had a month earlier won the prestigious Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The Irish 3-year-old Galileo finished sixth; today he is the leading sire in the world and stands at the famous Coolmore Stud in Ireland. (Click here to watch the race.)
Copyright © 2011 Horse Racing Business
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