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The above table lists the 2yo's with the highest Capital Ratings over some 40 years.
My Swallow, on a 2yo Capital Rating of 131, reigned supreme at the top of the ratings for 20 years
from 1970 to 1990. Unbeaten in seven races as a juvenile, My Swallow's achievements included
victory over the legendary Mill Reef. My Swallow was eventually displaced in the above
table by the French sensation Arazi in 1991. Arazi won its last seven races, including
a staggering record of four Group 1 wins on the bounce capped by a then unprecedented and thorough
thrashing of the top US juveniles in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. That particular US race
was a tough end-of-season test which did not exist back in the days of Mill Reef and My Swallow.
Arazi racked up a huge juvenile rating of 132. It was another ten years before Arazi's
figure was topped, this time by Johannesburg's 133 from an unbeaten seven wins on the bounce,
including a match of Arazi's four Group 1s including a success in the Breeder's Cup Juvenile.
In the twenty or so years since 1989, when home-trained Dashing Blade* clocked up a figure of 128
as a juvenile, the topmost rankings have been completely dominated by French-trained and
Irish-trained 2yo's.
* Dashing Blade is, of course, famed not for its juvenile career but when, as a 3yo, it went
down in history as "the unluckiest horse never to win the Epsom Derby" That
was after being expected by the subsequently heavily castigated jockey to do a physically impossible
60 mph to come from last to first round Tattenham Corner and, to everyone's everlasting disbelief,
almost managing it.
In the some 40-year period covered by our ratings, very few horses have managed to be champion
at both 2 and 3, the latest was New Approach in 2007/8. None has ever done it as enduringly
impressively as the magical Mill Reef back in 1970/71. That is the defining factor why
not one of the other fantastic juveniles in our table has managed to become a household name
in the way that Mill Reef did. |
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