Tags
american trainers association, beldame, bewitch, busher, delaware park poll, gallorette, imp, miss woodford, princess doreen, regret, top flight, twilight tear
There was a fairly famous poll taken by Delaware Park among the members of the American Trainers Association. None of the top 10 were born later than 1945, and only four of the top 10 were born after 1929.
The list, with race records and earnings, is below:
mare starts 1st 2nd 3rd unpl earnings
1) Gallorette 1942 72 21 20 13 18 $445,535
2) Twilight Tear 1941 24 18 2 2 1 202,165
3) Regret 1912 11 9 1 0 1 35,093
4) Top Flight 1929 16 12 0 0 4 275,900
5) Miss Woodford 1880 48 37 7 2 2 118,270
6) Busher 1942 21 15 3 1 2 334,035
7) Beldame 1901 31 17 6 4 4 102,570
8) Princess Doreen 1921 94 34 15 17 28 174,745
9) Bewitch 1945 55 20 10 11 14 462,605
10) Imp 1894 171 62 35 29 45 70,119
Despite the fact that three of these mares lie outside the century I was considering in my earlier post, this is a fascinating list.
First of all, the trainers were polled, and the collective memory of trainers like Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, Ben Jones, Bert Mulholland, and others stretched back a long way. For the most part, it didn’t go back to Imp or Miss Woodford, however. They were responding to the oral tradition of the best mares of the 19th century handed down to them as yardsticks by their mentors.
Second, that Miss Woodford — nearly three-quarters of a century after she was born — was considered fifth-best is staggering. That is serious respect.
Third, in the context of this listing of the best of the best, it is a head-spinner that the trainers were so impressed with Gallorette, who managed to beat some awfully good horses but also managed to lose 51 of her 72 start. The only rationale I can offer is that she was might impressive when she did her best and that she was campaigned quite aggressively.
Even so, I still believe Twilight Tear and Regret were better. Both were so multi-dimensional that they were nearly impossible to defeat.