The decade in horse racing

By Tim Layden, SI.com

Top 20 horses

Curlin won 11 of his 16 starts, becoming North America's all-time earnings leader, with $10,501,800. Bill Denver/ Icon SMI

1. CURLIN
The decade's only two-time Horse of the Year was a tough-as-nails gamer who, according to trainer Steve Asmussen, "got better the more he got stretched out [pushed hard] in a race." Curlin came back on Street Sense in the 2007 Preakness to score one of the grittiest big-race victories in recent racing history, and then became just the second three-year-old in the 2000s to win the Breeders' Cup Classic. His owners did racing a favor by keeping him on the track as a four-year-old, and he won three more Grade I races before retiring.

2. ZENYATTA
Never beaten in her 14-race career, this Amazonian mare was named by owner and former music executive Jerry Moss after a Police album called Zenyatta Mondatta that he produced in 1980. She closed her career with a dramatic victory as a five-year-old in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita. Bigger and more imposing than many of her male contemporaries, Zenyatta will be ranked as one of the greatest mares of all time.

3. TIZNOW
The only horse in the 26-year history of the Breeders' Cup to win the featured Classic twice -- as a three-year-old in 2000 and four-year-old in 2001. In each case, he held off a top European champion: Giant's Causeway in 2000 and Sahkee in 2001. Both were courageous efforts with victory earned in the final jump. Tiznow won his second title despite a series of injuries that made training and racing difficult.

4. GHOSTZAPPER
A true ''freak'' (meant in the most flattering way), the 2004 Horse of the Year's ability to milk uncommon speed over long distances was best evidenced by his dominant victory in the that year's Breeders' Cup Classic. His last race, as a five-year-old, was a breathtakingly easy romp in the 2005 Metropolitan Mile at Belmont Park even though he sustained the injury that ended his career. Probably the best horse -- among many good ones -- ever trained by Bobby Frankel, who died on Nov. 16.

5. POINT GIVEN
Of all the near-Triple Crown winners in the 2000's -- and there were six who won two of the three races -- none deserved to break the long drought more than the powerful Bob Baffert-trained Point Given. Compromised by a fast pace in the Kentucky Derby, he dominated the Preakness and Belmont and finished his career with a victory in the Travers at Saratoga in August. No three-year-old was better for a season.

Rachel Alexandra winning the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga in September. AP

6. RACHEL ALEXANDRA
Her 2009 campaign may have been the best by any three-year-old filly in history. Twice she beat peers by 20 lengths. She won the Preakness 15 days after winning the Kentucky Oaks. She dominated Belmont-winner Summer Bird in winning the Haskell and closed out her campaign by beating older males with a gutty, hang-on performance at Saratoga in the Woodward. Best part: She might be on this list again in 10 years, because she'll be raced as a four-year-old in 2010.

7. INVASOR
The 2006 Horse of the Year had won the Uruguayan Triple Crown as a three-year-old in 2005 before being sold to Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum. His 2006 season included four Grade I victories, culminating with the Breeders' Cup Classic, in which he ran down favored Bernardini in the home stretch at Churchill Downs.

8. AZERI
One of the decade's most decorated horses of any gender, Azeri was voted Horse of the Year in 2002 after winning what was then called the Breeders' Cup Distaff (now the Ladies Classic). She was also voted champion older female for three consecutive years (2002-'04).

9. SMARTY JONES
With a furlong left in the 2004 Belmont Stakes, it seemed certain that he would end the 26-year gap between Triple Crown winners, but after repelling challenges from Rock Hard Ten and Eddington, Smarty Jones was run down in the stretch by Birdstone. Still, his romp through the preps, Kentucky Derby, and Preakness with his wheelchair-bound owner, Roy (Chappie) Chapman, made for a terrific story.

10. HIGH CHAPARRAL
The only two-time winner of the Breeders' Cup Turf: in 2002, the same year he won the Epsom Derby and Irish Derby, and in 2003 at Santa Anita, where he dead-heated with Johan. High Chaparral was twice voted the Eclipse Award as champion turf horse.

Big Brown wins the 2008 Florida Derby. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

11. BIG BROWN
Unfortunately, he will be remembered for his mysterious last-place finish in the 2008 Belmont Stakes while chasing the Triple Crown. It would be more appropriate to recall the brilliance that preceded it: a five-length romp in the Florida Derby despite breaking from post 12; a 4-3/4-length victory in the Kentucky Derby from post 20; and a laughably easy 5-¼-length win in the Preakness.

12. LAVA MAN
A modern-day Seabiscuit, Lava Man once ran as a two-year-old for a $12,500 claiming tag and retired four years later having earned nearly $5.2 million in purses and 12 major stakes races in California. He won the Hollywood Gold Cup three times and twice he took the big 'Cap at Santa Anita, the second time in 2007. Although he never won outside California, Lava Man will be remembered as one of the most inspirational horses of the decade.

13. FUNNY CIDE
This speedy son of Distorted Humor did plenty on the track, winning the 2003 Kentucky Derby (he was the first gelding since 1929 to take the roses) and Preakness, the latter by nearly 10 lengths, before falling shy of the Triple Crown by losing to Empire Maker in a muddy Belmont Stakes. Of no use in a breeding shed, Funny Cide ran four more years before retiring in 2007, but will be best remembered for his Everyman ownership that included five high school buddies from a small town in upstate New York, who bought him for a paltry $75,000 in 2002. They rode to races in a yellow school bus and made greatness seem possible for commoners against the wealthy kings of racing.

14. AFLEET ALEX
Like Point Given four years earlier, Afleet Alex won the final two legs of the 2005 Triple Crown. His victory in the Preakness, in which he was knocked nearly to his knees by Scrappy T at the top of the lane and recovered to win going away, was one of the most remarkable big-race recoveries in racing history. He blew away the field in the Belmont Stakes, in what would be his final race.

15. SAINT LIAM
A late-blooming colt who was unraced as a three-year-old, Saint Liam began to blossom at four and was narrowly beaten by the great Ghostzapper (No. 4 on this list) in the 2004 Woodward Stakes. That paved the way for a brilliant 2005 in which Saint Liam won four Grade I stakes, culminating with the Breeders' Cup Classic, and was voted Horse of the Year.

16. RAGS TO RICHES
Prior to 2007, no filly had won the Belmont in more than a century, but on June 5, 2007, Rags To Riches beat the tough and brilliant Curlin (No. 1 on this list) by a desperate nose. That performance may have required everything that the filly had to give, as she ran only once more.

Street Sense lived up to his paper in the 2007 Kentucky Derby. AP

17. STREET SENSE
For 22 years, no winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile had gone on to win the Kentucky Derby the following year. Street Sense broke the curse by winning the 2006 Juvenile with a brave, rail-skimming trip under jockey Calvin Borel. Six months later in the Derby, Borel took him down low again to bag the roses. Before the '07 campaign was finished, Street Sense would tack on wins in the Jim Dandy and Travers at Saratoga.

18. MINESHAFT
Winner of seven major races in 2003, Mineshaft did not run in that year's Breeders' Cup because of injuries that caused his retirement with a 10-3-1 record in 18 starts and earnings $2,283,402. However, his July victory over eventual Classic-winner Volponi in the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park helped make him the overwhelming choice as Horse of the Year as well as champion older horse.

19. BIRDSTONE
He's here not just for his stunning upset that denied Smarty Jones the 2004 Triple Crown (after which trainer Nick Zito said to Smarty's John Servis, "I'm sorry'"), but for his impact in the breeding shed. In 2009, Birdstone's progeny won two legs of the Triple Crown, as Mine That Bird stunned the field in the Kentucky Derby and Summer Bird won the Belmont.

20. PEPPERS PRIDE
This mare never ran outside her home state of New Mexico, which means that she never faced top-class competition. She also never lost in 19 career starts, a record for any North American racehorse. Peppers Pride broke the previous record of 16 consecutive victories with a win at Zia Park Racetrack on Oct. 4, 2008. She was retired in 2009 and bred to the regal Tiznow, which will provide a interesting test case as to whether a mare from the wrong side of racing's tracks can combine with a Prince Charming to produce greatness.