Who’s Your Favorite Horse: Philip Antonacci, Preferred Equine

[Wandering Eyes]

Favorite: My all-time favorite racehorse would have to be Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d’Oro). Her 3-year-old year, I was 14 years old spending the summer with my brother, who was training standardbreds, and I couldn’t get enough of racing, both breeds. It just seemed like the perfect year of racing drama: longshot wins the Derby, Rachel romps in the Oaks, they meet up in the Preakness; she asserts her dominance, she dominates the boys in the Haskell, and blitzes the boys again in the Woodward. I vividly remember seeing her in the Saratoga paddock and knowing that I wanted to spend my life aiming to work with an athlete like her.

Best: I must qualify my assertion of the best racehorse of all time as one that I have seen in my lifetime. For me this is American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), the one who ticked all the boxes to qualify him as the greatest: a champion 2-year-old, a model of consistency, and a Triple Crown winner. It amazes me that he was so good all the time. As we all know, racehorses can be highly inconsistent, even the top ones. For Pharoah to perform at such a high level and to do so from his 2-year-old season, through the Triple Crown, and to culminate in a Breeders’ Cup Classic win is nothing short of remarkable.

Not only his physical ability to withstand a campaign as such but his mental fortitude to handle the pressure of racing, training, and his immense popularity leads me to believe that he is the greatest that I have ever seen.

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