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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4.17 103 Arrogate (Derby Eligible in 2016) If the '70s proved anything, it's that Triple Crown winners and freakish equine talent can come in bunches. Just a year removed from American Pharoah, trainer Bob Baffert certainly has another runner of similar ability in his barn, but greatness can't be rushed. Arrogate, who is the only currently active runner on this list, was kicked in the teeth by another horse as a yearling, and while the boot to the chompers didn't cause the horse's slower development, he did not make his career debut until April 17 last year, finishing third in a maiden event at Los Alamitos in California. In other words, while Nyquist was winning the 2016 Derby, Arrogate was an unknown maiden. Now clearly the best of his generation, Arrogate's meteoric rise to success includes six consecutive wins, marked by a track record in the historic Grade 1 Travers, a thrilling defeat of 2014 Derby winner California Chrome in the Breeders' Cup Classic and an easy victory in the newly created $12 million Pegasus World Cup, where he again defeated Chrome. Well on pace to becoming the richest racehorse in oroughbred history, Arrogate has earned more than $11 million in seven starts and will be the heavy favorite in the March 25 Dubai World Cup worth $10 million. Zenyatta (Derby Eligible 2007) e Queen of Racing won 19 of 20 races, her lone loss by a head in the last start of her career, the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic. Zenyatta won the 2008 Breeders' Cup Distaff and in 2009 became the first and only female to win the Breeders' Cup Classic. Rachel Alexandra (Derby Eligible 2009) Like Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes, Rachel was running only against herself while winning the 2009 Kentucky Oaks by a record 20¼ lengths. Most thought she instead should have been running in the Kentucky Derby the next day — a sentiment reinforced when she came back two weeks later to beat 2009 Derby winner Mine at Bird in the Preakness, becoming the first filly to win that race in 84 years. Ghostzapper (Derby Eligible 2003) Highly regarded as a sprinter, Ghostzapper, already known to be one of the fastest horses since the advent of Beyer Speed Figures, further cemented his legacy by handling the classic mile-and-a-quarter distance with a front-running destruction of the 2004 Breeders' Cup Classic field. Cigar (Derby Eligible 1993) Cigar did not race as a two-year-old and was primarily a middling turf horse at three. It wasn't until he was switched to the dirt and the care of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott that the real Cigar emerged, winning 16 consecutive races at the graded-stakes level, including the 1995 Breeders' Cup Classic. A statue in the paddock of Gulfstream Park in Florida memorializes this great champ, who lived out his retirement years at the Kentucky Horse Park until his death in 2014. The Five Best Who Never Ran Not all great American dirt horses run in the Derby. In fact, there's an exhaustive list — and many recent examples — of horses with Hall of Fame credentials who never entered the Derby starting gate. Cigar