When Two Out of Three is Bad: Sunday Silence

[SWC75]

1989: Sunday Silence


There was no silence when Sunday Silence ran: “in his career, he had three losses by margins of a head or a neck, two wins by a nose and a neck, and a win and a loss by less than a length.” (Wikipedia) He had a great rival in Easy Goer. They met four times and Sunday Silence won 3, two by a nose and neck. He was owned by H-W-G Partners, LTD, the initials standing for Arthur Hancock III, who owned Stone Farm near Paris, Kentucky, Charlie Whittingham, his trainer, and Dr. Ernest Gallaird. Pat Valenzuela was the jockey.


Easy Goer was the 2 year old champion in 1988 and was the favorite in each of the Triple Crown races. On a muddy track, Sunday Silence beat him by 2 ½ lengths in the Derby, then by a nose on a dry track in the Preakness. But Easy Goer finally came through in the Belmont, running the second fastest time ever, (to guess who?) and won by 8 lengths. But Sunday Silence later held on to beat Easy Goer by a neck in the Breeder’s Cup and won horse of the year. His career record was 9-5-0 in 14 races. Easy Goer, (another son of Alydar) was 14-5-1 in 20 races, so neither horse was ever out of the money. Essentially, we had two Triple Crown quality horses that happened to have been born in the same year so neither of them won it.

 

[donniesyracuse]

Easy Goer is the most impressive horse I have seen in my lifetime (I was not around for Secretariat). While Easy Goer was by far the superior "athlete;" as demonstrated in the Belmont, Sunday Silence was unfortunately the better competitor. If Easy Goer had Sunday Silence's spirit, he would have been an all-time great in Secretariat's league.

I remember standing near Easy Goer in the paddock area at Saratoga that summer. His muscles were gigantic. He won the Whitney and Travers that year without breaking a sweat.

 

[br801]

Easy Goer is the most impressive horse I have seen in my lifetime (I was not around for Secretariat). While Easy Goer was by far the superior "athlete;" as demonstrated in the Belmont, Sunday Silence was unfortunately the better competitor. If Easy Goer had Sunday Silence's spirit, he would have been an all-time great in Secretariat's league.

I remember standing near Easy Goer in the paddock area at Saratoga that summer. His muscles were gigantic. He won the Whitney and Travers that year without breaking a sweat.

While Easy Goer was the more impressive physical specimen, I would argue that Sunday Silence was the more athletic of the two in terms of tractability and the ability to handle different race tracks and track conditions. Both were great champions and tenacious competitors with tremendous heart.