David

They have deleted a few of mine. It would be nice to know who is doing the arbitrary censoring. Without knowing who or why the censoring of statements made it is hard to read the articles.

But those vying for 3 year old Eclipse don't pick and choose who they run against. With no dominant 3 year old this year the Triple Crown, including the Kentucky Derby, loom large. For example, with Medina Spirit beating older horses and now also having two Grade I wins and a third placing in the Preakness, EQ will need to win or place ahead of him and the other main contenders, including Hot Rod Charlie, to stake any claim, in part because he chose to not run in the Grade I Preakness, which he most likely would have lost.

Who did Essential Quality beat in the Travers and in the Jim Dandy; both of these races were sub-par, more like Grade III level. You need to apply the same standard against the others as you apply for Letrushka, who has run the table on all the Grade Is in various states, beating all the top competitors around in her division.

She has beaten any and all opponents almost in all Grade Is. Which is more than can be said of the contenders in the other divisions.

Letruska has ducked no opponents, unlike for example, Essential Quality, who dodged the Preakness, and ran against very weak competitors in the Travers and Jim Dandy. And he has been on the sidelines since. The Travers was one of the weakest Grade Is in recent memory. The Jim Dandy was a Grade II.

Letruska now has won 4 Grade Is, most of any horse this year. She has dominated her division, beating the likes of Monomoy Girl, Swiss Skydiver, and any other horse that ran in the Grade Is. She is the clear cut leader for Horse of the Year. No other horse has dominated their division. The Breeder's Cup Classic may determine a few other divisions, older dirt male and 3 year old male, and a few others. But even with a Breeders Cup win, the other competitors will have won at most three Grade Is.

This year as in the past many recent years, the West Coast runners are stronger than the East Coast -- Medina Spirit, Hot Rod Charlie, among the top horses. The East Coast may have better grass runners, but mostly those runners are imported from Europe.

Forget about my analysis, any objective person knows that the Grade I Kentucky Derby is the toughest race of the year for three year olds. Medina Spirit won it, like he just won the Awesome Again. Essential Quality came in fourth. It is surprising that that point gets ignored. Anyone can find positive angles to tout their horse but horse racing has a pecking order of races, nationally recognized by all. EQ ran fast in the Belmont, so did Hot Rod Charlie. EQ's problem is that his other Grade I was in the Travers, a weak race, with most of the runners Grade II or Grade III types. His handlers played it safe and thought he would coast to the Eclipse. EQ will need to place ahead of Medina Spirit and Hot Rod Charlie to get the Eclipse.

The horses in the Awesome Again, by comparison, were more competitive than the horses Essential Quality faced in the Travers or Jim Dandy -- Grade II or Grade III type 3-yr-olds.

Go Knicks may serve as the 'rabbit' for potentially Essential Quality, Hot Rod Charlie, or another closer.