Everyone talks about the greatest horse of all time..BUT..what was the greatest

[Grandstand Handicapper]

A few more posts.....and I am going to post the boldest, the bravest, and the biggest pair of balls move I've ever seen a driver ever make!

[JT]

Here is another that popped into my mind.. Stig Johansson sitting dead last in the international trot at Yonkers for almost one mile and then he made the move and Peace Corps just took off... and he timed the move perfectly to win at the wire. It was a world record at the time. I loved that horse so much.. her gait and the way she sticks her neck out and stretching for every inch. To me that is a ballsy move.. sitting that far back with the best horse and timing it perfectly.

https://youtu.be/Jh1_hA_Kfrw?si=Ggh-sP3UgrB69RvT

[Grandstand Handicapper]

Here is another that popped into my mind.. Stig Johansson sitting dead last in the international trot at Yonkers for almost one mile and then he made the move and Peace Corps just took off... and he timed the move perfectly to win at the wire. It was a world record at the time. I loved that horse so much.. her gait and the way she sticks her neck out and stretching for every inch. To me that is a ballsy move.. sitting that far back with the best horse and timing it perfectly.

https://youtu.be/Jh1_hA_Kfrw?si=Ggh-sP3UgrB69RvT

Absolutely! While he knew who and what he was sitting behind, the timing was to say the least, perfect! I guess we wouldn't be saying that if he finished second, LOL. Stig H was one of the greatest horsemen of all time.

[corndawg]

Ron pierce single handidly beat Sbsw in the pace.

[Harness racer]

Ron pierce single handidly beat Sbsw in the pace.

Wrong!  SBSW's driver got him beat.  Bonehead drive.  Should have let things settle and then brushed.  He would've won easy.  Expected to be given the lead and Pierce told him not so fast.   

[Bitter Truth]

Funny coincidence with the BJ Scoot-Albert Albert combination...Fal con Almahurst was BJScoot's sire
Abercrombie was Albert Albert's sire and oddly enough Falcon Almahurst [Billy Haughton] hung Abercrombie
[Glen Garnsey] in 1978 Jug just like the other two, though not the whole mile like Albert Albert.

[wisha roder]

Ron pierce single handidly beat Sbsw in the pace.

Yannick was a huge factor.  Screwed the race up for SBSW.  Pierce had the right horse at the right place at the right time.  Always felt this race was a set-up to take down the Beach.  Art Official wasn't much of a success at stud.

[Grandstand Handicapper]

So, I've seen some incredibly bold, brave, and great moves by drivers----and like I said, if it worked out, they were a genius, knew what they were sitting behind, and so on. If it didn't, they were a moron. LOL.

Regardless, based upon the time, when it happened, perhaps the greatest move any driver has ever-----intentionally-----made was none other than George Sholty driving Sonsam in the Meadowlands Pace! You can't see all of it on the video, but you can see a lot of it. Sonsam had post 10.....spoiler alert, LOL.....he won the Meadowlands Pace, with a world record purse at the time, in a world record (for those of you who only look at teletimers, LOL) time of 1:53.2! George was parked (virtually) the entire mile, and was driving and moving forward from the 1/4 on, and then he had to get arounds horses on top of that, LOL. He was 3 and 4 wide, and Bob Heyden says 5 wide. I was there that night, I saw it. It was incredible.

When George moved Sonsam to get him outside and rolling, closer to the leaders, into contention, it was amazing. I remember Stan Bergstein after the race said that when he saw Sholty move he actually said, "LOOK AT THIS!!!" The amazing part was that Sonsam was going his fastest.....going around horses and around the turn, and passing horses while he was 3 and 4 wide! It was like George was going and it didn't matter what or who was in his way, George was going around them. If they were 3 wide, George was going 4, and if they were 4 wide, George was going 5, LOL. George had so much belief in that colt that night, he drove with balls, and with so much confidence, and what might be overlooked is that Sonsam did it! He got the job done and impressively!

[gh2009]

I didn't see the race myself and from your description the horse had a brutal trip and ran a great race and won. Do you personally think it was a great drive or was the horse that much the best that he overcame a brutal trip? Not really sure a driver's strategy is to be 3 and 4 wide for three quarters of the mile, but if that's his best chance to win from post 10, then you take a shot. A driver can make the right move several times during the same race but still not win. Does the horse have to win for it to be the greatest drive ever? There was a time my horse was given a great drive or was it luck? He passed a few horses on the outside, snuck back to the rail, and several horses in front of him pulled and in early stretch it was like the parting of the Red Sea, he fanned out four wide and blew by the field. Of course, there's definitely luck involved too because he couldn't have known all those other horses were going to pull.

[White Rabbit]

The 2 boldest moves that came right to my mind, one of them worked out.. the other didn't. The dumb one has to be MacDonell on SBSW in the Meadowlands Pace. The other which did work out but was a bad drive was the LBJ that Campbell drove Life Sign.. trying to go for the lead when he knew how well Riyadh could leave and Presidential Ball closing that hole.. then backing off to 4th and then almost immediately pulling back out. Life Sign bailed out Campbell on that day.

Great race, I watched that one live.
John did make a tactical bad decision by pushing off the car, but his greatness , talent, coolness etc came out and he went to winning plan B.
Talk about bad decision on that race , Jackie Mo is supposed to put Campbell in the pocket past the 1/4 and then move first over and sit rt beside LS the whole mile. LS never sees daylight. It was a 3 horse BR entry and Jackie Mo, Jim M, Pava , Bill R & Monti G still couldn’t out think JC.
2nd to that drive was YG Karl Hambo. YG drove and absolutely perfect Strategic race

[Arnold Ziffel]

Niatross

[jupiter]

Guttiest performance was, Steve Lobell, Sept 4, 1976, Hambletonian, 4 heats DuQuoin Fair grounds !!!!!!  He also won the Yonkers Trot, in the Kentucky Futurity he was beat a head by Soothsayer, 1st heat, and Peter beat him with Quick Pay in the 2 heats, by a head and a neck. Unbelievable day, 1976 Trotter of the year.