Reference Point - 1987 King George

[@marcolibri]

quel giorno ero li ha tifare per il mio amato tony bin. che spettacolo le corse in inghilterra, quanta gente, quanta passione. ormai in italia non e' piu' cosi'...

[@welshgalx1]

Reference Point and Steve Cauthen were my insperation growing up. For anyone who is a rider to be in tune with their horse to hit that point to go......well history says it all!"!!!

[@kashykorner2]

REFERENCE POINT. MASSIVELY UNDERREATED

[@december2364]

This was RF's best performance. And I have no doubts that had he went for the Irish Derby instead of the Eclipse he would have crushed Sir Harry Lewis again

[@21shergar]

Win the King George in a field not so big as to result in the DB Derby-like defeat he suffered in the 1988 Arc. If he'd got there at the death at Longchamps his stock would be so much higher. But that's racing. It was the manner of Mtoto's victories that set him apart from almost all others. That combination of acceleration and tenacity was mesmerising. As KZbin's pages evidence, I do not stand alone in believing that Mtoto was 10 furlong king. Unfortunately proof requires a time machine.

[@21shergar]

Just goes to show the brilliance of Mtoto. RP was absolutely top drawer. Also, I must say that I disagree with december. I believe RP's best performance was coming so close to Mtoto in the 1987 Eclipse. Why does Timeform rate Mtoto lower than RP? It's one of Timeform's most obvious slips.

[@tigerboy1966]

My hunch is that if RP had been around these days he would have raced for a couple more years and won a stack of big races. He really was just a big baby in 87. The prize money/ stud value equation in the 80's meant that there was no point keeping an established champion in trainig.

[@imperialzapper]

@mallafets Triptich was a far better horse as a 5 Y.O. taking on RP than she was as a 4 Y.O.taking on DB. She only won one Group 1 as a 4 Y.O., but five Group 1 races as a 5 Y.O. Also, Acatenango wasnt far behind DB in the 1986 Arc, on fast ground he didn't like: in the 1987 King George, on the soft ground he loved, he was beaten out of sight by RP.

[@gurney2931]

You may well be right with what you say re Triptych but Dancing Brave was better than Reference Point. I loved Reference Point, one of my all time favourites but DB was far classier with a turn of foot, RP was just a plodder, albeit a very good one.

[@mikerainham]

Dancing brave was better. He stayed 1 1/2 miles just! But he did stay because he won the arc in record time! But I liked both mtoto and reference point, top class horses

[@mallafets]

@jmdm1957 DB would of beat RP, you can see how close Tryptich got to RP twice and DB twice to see that.

[@mallafets]

rather the quality of horses were better when she was 4 in 86 so she won less than at 5 in 87.