Sham

[second_glance]

Nice blog piece on Sham by Brian Zipse.

http://www.horseracingnation.com/blogs/zatt/Remembering_Sham_123

[PJMIII]

Nice blog piece on Sham by Brian Zipse.

http://www.horseracingnation.com/blogs/zatt/Remembering_Sham_123
Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

[Suni]

My main man. Thanks for posting!

[drewsbadboy]

Wonderful piece. Thanks for sharing this!

[Saluter]

Scan quality is LOUSY (sorry), but here's a conformation shot of Sham from an early-'80s Spendthrift Farm stallion book.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2508728240101370471SaeoWd

[danziggirl]

I read the book about Sham - think it was called "Sham, in the Shadow of a Superhorse" - well worth reading. Made me cry :(

[Secretariat Forever]

thanks for posting that. I do believe there are two horses in the history of racing that were simply born in the wrong year. Sham and Alydar. Those two would have been very deserving TC winners.

[clocker]

I do believe there are two horses in the history of racing that were simply born in the wrong year. Sham and Alydar. Those two would have been very deserving TC winners.

Subtract Alydar out of the argument. When applied to Sham, I've never understood the universality of the sentiment. He had some brilliant races, and he had some not-so-brilliant ones.

I have no trouble envisioning a scenario where a more judicious handling and lighter schedule could have gotten him to the Belmont Stakes with two open-ground TC wins under his belt, and fresher for the last leg. Allowing him to have shown a little more past a half mile in NY. But what evidence mentally guarantees that he was a slam-dunk 12f colt for such a hypothetical? Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. How many other KD/Preakness winners have looked like locks also beforehand, only to fail going longer?

I'll grant that he would have been a heavy favorite against the most motley collection of also-rans ever in the '73 Belmont Stakes, fodder possibly even for Big Brown. (Go thru their complete racing histories sometime.) But without Secretariat, there might have been additional capable horses to provide trouble, traffic, or even competition. Again, coming out of that class of distance-challenged animals, an unlikelihood ... but who knows for certain?

"...that were simply born in the wrong year." Hmmm ... So what if Sham had been foaled in the 1990s or 2000s? It's hardly guaranteed that, having already lost a race due to lesser traffic at SA, he would have emerged from a 20-horse field KD as the winner; making the rest of the speculation moot.

It's past time to put that blanket statement to bed. I'd favor Alydar for such a hypothetical over Sham, given that he actually put in three creditable TC races for the record. Sham? I'd like his chances, but the percentages are lesser.

[Native Diver]

Scan quality is LOUSY (sorry), but here's a conformation shot of Sham from an early-'80s Spendthrift Farm stallion book.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2508728240101370471SaeoWd

Thanks for posting that link. There were several old photos from that era of horses there whose names I had long forgotten.

[Saluter]

Thanks for posting that link. There were several old photos from that era of horses there whose names I had long forgotten.

Glad you enjoyed the pictures! All but a handful of the photos in that particular album were scanned from an old Spendthrift Farm stallion book from around 1982 or '83. I have a couple of those that I wouldn't part with for anything. Spendthrift was one of the farms I used to write to when I was a kid and ask for anything they were willing to send me! I got several lovely stallion books from Gainesway the same way. It was a BIG DAY when one of those arrived in the mail!! :)