Or mare 
What I’m really wondering is if Zenyatta and/or Rachel really measure up to the big race mares of the past. If you had to name one big female superstar of horse racing, who would it be?
I still cry when I think of Ruffian. I thought she was great.
There are so many.
Busher
Sceptre
Pretty Polly
Ta Wee
Two Lea and her very close relative Twilight Tear.
Although the other American mares are not undefeated, they had many, many more starts over time.
The British mares didn’t finish undefeated either but they beat the males over and over again in the Classics.
Forgot the greatest race mare who ever lived, per record. Kincsem.
http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/Kincsem.html
to name just a few from the mists of the past.
- Genuine Risk
- Landaluce
- RA
- Zenyatta
- Winning Colors
- Ruffian
- RagstoRiches
- Eight Belles
In my lifetime. I’ve not seen any video of the original superfilly Regret.
In order. Genuine Risk gets the nod because if she had not been whipped in the face, she would have won 2 triple crown races against the boys.
And this doesn’t include the great european mares and fillies.
Ruffian…hands down.
She won every race by huge margins and set track and stakes records in the process. Who knows how great she truly was; she died way too young.
Paseana
Bayakoa
Miesque
Ouija Board
Zarkava
Zoldikova
This is a department that there is no contest…RUFFIAN! No other filly has done what she did…It isn’t so much that she not only won everything, she broke record after record…Look at her races against the clock not the other fillies. Even Secreteriat’s trainer said she was better then he was…
I have to say Kincsem
54-54-0-0 (includes 6 walkovers) 1876-1879
4-1/2f to 18f
Weighted 112 to 168 lbs.
She might not count in the US because she ran on grass in Europe, but with her own museum and Kincsem Park Racetrack, I think she still wins.
More recently, Sunline (Australian Horse of the Year: 99/00, 00/01, 01/02 & Champion New Zealand Horse of the Year: 98/99, 99/00, 00/01, 01/02) Grass again though.
Grass mares get more opportunities to show their greatness.
Genuine Risk because she’s the only filly to run all three legs of the American Triple Crown (won the Derby, placed 2nd in both the Preakness and Belmont).
Personal Ensign
Recently there’s Makybe Diva in Australia.
Dahlia needs to be mentioned as well.
But Kincsem really was the best ever IMO.
I had never heard of Kincsem. Wow! That one was truly a superhorse. It’s funny she isn’t mentioned more often with that record, regardless of time period.
I’ll always be a sucker for Ruffian. Zenyatta definitely proved herself, but I just don’t think the level of competition is equal to that of older fillies and mares. I’m not discounting her efforts–she’s a standout for sure–but the game has changed it seems.
It’s both difficult and rather unfair to produce one master list of “all time” fillies just as it would with colts. Some gals perhaps lost in the sands of time and underappreciated simply because their efforts aren’t on youtube.com …
Bewitch, 8 8-0-0 as a 2-yr old including a defeat of Citation her half-brother and stablemate. She was named Champion 2-yr old filly in 1947 which today would be an eclipse. Hall of Famer inducted in 1977, although she passed away in 1959. A tried and true racehorse with a record of 55 Starts: 20-10-11 and continued throughout her career to take on more challenges.
At the age of five, she raced from one end of the country to the other, unplaced only once. And when she was six, she ran fifteen times, twelve of those races against males.
When she retired, Bewitch had earned $462,605, which made her the greatest money-earning filly to date.
Gallorette, 8 3-3-2 as a 2-yr old, at 3 (1945) defeated the Kentucky Derby winner for that year, finished 2nd in the Wood Memorial. 1962 inductee in to the Hall of Fame. Career record 72: 21-20-13. Tough as shoe leather and in a poll among members of the American Trainers Association, conducted in 1955 by Delaware Park Racetrack, she was voted the greatest filly in American racing history.
At three against females, she took the Acorn Stakes, the Pimlico Oaks, and the Delaware Oaks. She beat every Eastern filly of any quality. Back to racing colts, she carried the same weight and competed in the Dwyer Stakes, losing it by a nose to Wildlife. But she won the Empire City Handicap, beating the Belmont Stakes winner, Pavot.
Princess Doreen, who was considered a bit of the female Exterminator for her durability, ability to carry weight, and competitive spirit. She was the 1924 American Champion filly, then won in 1925 and 1925 the award for Champion older Female. 1982 Hall of Fame inductee.
“The Princess” compiled a record of 94 Starts: 34-15-17; she died in 1952 at the age of 31.
Or how about Pan Zareta (aka “Panzy”) who might not have been in the well known races but what she did and was asked to do is amazing. 151 starts: 76-31-21; Hall of Fame induction in 1972.
Pan Zareta equaled or set eleven track records including a world record. Took on males, raced everywhere known to man, carried weight like it was nothing, and soldier on. Perhaps the sadest thing was her ending. Failing to conceive she went back to the track at 8, Pan Zareta contracted pneumonia and died on Christmas day 1918 in her stall at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans.
Those are just a few examples.
Plenty of others such as the assorted sisters known as the “Barbarous Battalion”: Ruthless, Remorseless, Relentless, Regardless, and Merciless. All pre 1900 but left a lifetime impression with their ‘tougher then the boys’ style on the track.
I have to vote for Ruffian, Genuine Risk, Zenyatta and Winning Colors.
Ruffian was just…incredible.
What is the fastest time that a filly ran 1 mile and 1/4? Zenyatta’s time looked pretty good to me…
I’ve read you can’t compare or quantify greatness, all you can do is recognize it.
We haven’t mentioned Dance Smartly, winner of the Canadian Triple Crown in her undefeated 3YO season.
On a personal and purely subjective note, I give extra credit points in my mind to the girls who ran head to head with the boys, because those boys can get rough! It’s one thing to run fast and run far, but to run through a slug fest and willingly come back and do it again - that takes a serious racehorse. The best horse doesn’t always win and the numbers don’t show that, though it’s something that can still be seen and recognized. Which is why by the numbers, Kincsem is the best by far. No second guessing that. But there are other qualities that contribute to being a great racemare.
Shouldn’t we at least mention Azeri? She lost the Classic, but she wasn’t at her top form and she was chasing Ghostzapper who was very lightly raced and fresh. I have my doubts that Zenyatta could have run that boy down, though she may have gotten closer to him.
Glimmerglass, I wonder if PZ died from Spanish flu instead of pneumonia. Right time, right place, and I think I have heard that swine flu can affect horses.
Kincsem ran against the boys regularly. She won the Goodwood Cup in England, the Grand Prix of Deauville in France, and the Grosser Preis von Baden, the premier German race, 3 times running.
Sixteen posts, and no one got the right answer.
Dawn Run was the greatest mare of all times.
AND she’s on Youtube :D, or at least her park is, showcasing Overdose:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUOlfaKNGFs
Just looked up Dawn Run. Wow. Definitely belongs.
Lordy, nobody mentioned Shuvee? Beat the guys twice in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, when it was still run at two miles!
