At ESPN.com, turf writer Bill Finley explains why he won't be casting a vote for Ghostzapper to be inducted into the racing Hall of Fame, even though the Breeders' Cup Classic winner “had as much talent as any to race over the last three decades.”
Finley says, quite simply, Ghostzapper didn't run enough, and he's the first of many such horses who will be up for induction in the coming years. Ghostzapper made 11 career starts and never raced more than four times in a year. Finley writes:
“Whether it's Ghostzapper, Bernardini (8 career starts), Big Brown (8 career starts), Invasor (12 career starts, 6 in the U.S.), Rags to Riches (7 career starts), Smarty Jones (9 career starts) or others, horses who came and went in what seemed like an instant will not get my vote. They simply don't belong in the Hall of Fame alongside true greats who ran 35, 40 times or more.
“Eventually this nonsense will change. Some owner is going to finally figure out that there's a boatload of money to be made actually running their horses because purses are at record levels in places like New York and so many major stakes races still attract five and six-horse fields. Just as (Bobby) Frankel and a few others popularized the idea of giving horses two months off between races, some smart and respected trainer is going to go in the other direction, a direction others will follow.”
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