DiscoverING the best thoroughbreds to have ever run!

This thoroughbred racehorse is a master of thoroughbreds! Talk about a combination of winning and breeding. Tapit (foaled February 27, 2001, in Kentucky) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won three of his six races, including the Wood Memorial Stakes, then a Grade I event. He was an immediate success after retiring to stud, becoming the leading freshman sire in North America of 2008 with Breeders' Cup winner Stardom Bound becoming his first Grade I winner. He was the leading sire in North America in 2014, setting an earnings record that he broke in 2015 and again in 2016. For the 2015 season, his stud fee was raised to $300,000, the highest in North America in 2021. Today he is the leading sire in the world! Tapit was purchased as a yearling in 2002 for $625,000! He is closing in on a billion dollars breeding! 

Talk about a combination of winning, breeding and being very successful, Cigar was it!  This racehorse (April 18, 1990 – October 7, 2014), was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who was the 1995 and 1996 American Horse of the Year. He was the first American racehorse racing against top-class competition to win 16 consecutive races! Cigar was retired to stud at the end of the 1996 racing season.     

One of the greatest turf racehorses! Baaeed (foaled 8 April 2018) is a British retired Thoroughbred racehorse. He began his racing career as a three-year-old in 2021 and was undefeated in six races that year, including the Prix du Moulin and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. In the following year he took his unbeaten run to ten with victories in the Lockinge, Queen Anne Stakes, Sussex Stakes and the International Stakes, before losing his final race in the Champion Stakes. These races were all on the turf.  

One of the fastest dirt thoroughbreds in America. Essential Quality (foaled April 9, 2018) is a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2021 Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes, and the 2020 Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He was named the 2020 Champion Two-Year-Old and the 2021 Champion Three-Year-Old. He won eight of his ten races finishing in the top three in every race, with his only defeats being a third-place in the Kentucky Derby after a troubled trip and finishing only a length behind the winner, and a game third in the Breeders' Cup Classic. Tapit is the sire and Delightful Quality is the dam of Essential Quality. Talk about top breeding. 

Man O' War (March 29, 1917 – November 1, 1947) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who is widely regarded as one of the greatest racehorses of all time. Several sports publications, including The Blood-Horse, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and the Associated Press, voted Man O' War as the best American racehorse of his time! During his racing career, just after World War I, Man O' War won 20 of 21 races in his lifetime and was retired to stud. The one race that he lost, was by a whisker on his nose- photo finish took more than :10 minutes to decide! He lost to Upset, in the Sanford Stakes Memorial (August 13th in 1919- Saratoga Racecourse), as a 2-year old. Man O' War ranks second on the Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th-21st Century, only behind Secretariat!

This thoroughbred raced was a fabulous thoroughbred! Kelso (April 4, 1957 – October 16, 1983) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is considered one of the greatest racehorses in history. He ranks fourth on the Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century. He defeated more champions and Hall of Fame horses than any other racehorse in the world! He often carried more weight than his opponents. Twice he carried the maximum weight of 138 lbs.!

We will go over "weights" and why they are 'carried' during each race, every day, during classroom instruction.