In the debut study I'm compiling, I encountered Golden Hare, who was absolutely a poor man's Rapid Redux. Consider this career:he started with four wins in maidens and allowances from nine starts at 3 for Richard Mandella before trying the Malibu, where he ran 4th.
A more motley crew probably hasn't been assembled for the Malibu in my lifetime, particularly among the first three finishers: Debonair Joe, Total Limit, and American System. (This was 2002, by the way.) Behind Golden Hare, it looks a little better: there were Castle Gandolfo, Mayakovsky, and Sunday Break. My Cousin Matt was the second favorite: he certainly had his moments, but had also been in for a claiming tag on September 25.
Including the Malibu, Golden Hare went on a 21-race losing streak, not to be broken until he ran in a starter late in the year as a 7-year-old. The next 21 races were much happier than that losing streak, and formed a streak of their own, as they were all starter races. Golden Hare won 18 of them, and ran second the other three times. This occurred in a period of less than 14 months. He was apparently always a horse that could take a lot of racing, going back to his 3-year-old year.
Golden Hare's record at the end of his career did not represent either of the extremes of consistently winning or consistently losing that he had experienced before: after essentially leaving starter competition, he showed 16 starts, six wins, two seconds, and four thirds, before retiring at age 10. Still very good.
So Golden Hare's record had real shape to it. Four for nine to begin; then the lean times, 21 straight losses; then wins in 20 of 23 starts; then a more calm finish of 5 wins in 15 starts. It was very much like a play: you can see the different acts (the final act just spent time wrapping things up, however, which might be melodramatic and have the audience restless. But I like the aspect of taking a while to get into the story, then having the desolation, then the triumph.)
I also think Golden Hare, and starter races in particular, show that the idea of winning and losing in horses being about anything more than running at the right class level is nonsense. He went from a horse who couldn't find the winner's circle to one who couldn't be kept out.
Pedigreequery has an interesting note on Golden Hare, that he was "maybe 900 pounds."
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