Sunday Silence Should Have an Easy Go of Eclipsing 1989 Feats

What makes Eclipse Award winner Sunday Silence such a great thoroughbred?

Andrew Beyer of the Washington Post writes:

“Sunday Silence is the most adaptable champion since Affirmed. He has raw speed that enables him to be a front-runner if his jockey chooses. He can sit behind the leaders and use that speed to accelerate sharply at a crucial stage of the race--as he did when he out-kicked Easy Goer on the turn at the Breeders’ Cup.

“No conditions seem to faze him. When he encountered an unfamiliar muddy track at the Kentucky Derby, he handled it successfully--while Easy Goer didn’t. When he was stopped cold at a critical stage of the Preakness--trouble that would have spelled certain defeat for almost any other horse--he recovered immediately and rushed back into contention.

“If Sunday Silence had been retired at the end of 1989, we might have concluded that he hadn’t won enough big races to earn recognition as an all-time great, but that he had shown as much talent as just about any American race horse since Spectacular Bid. On the basis of his Breeders’ Cup performance, I believe he could have beaten Alysheba, Ferdinand, Lady’s Secret or Spend a Buck--the last four horses of the year.

“Fortunately, it is not necessary to speculate about how good Sunday Silence could be, because the colt will race again this season as a 4-year-old. There is every reason to believe he will get better and better.”

Trivia time: The Golden State Warriors’ Chris Mullin is on a pace to become the first player since the 1969-70 season to finish an NBA season in the top 10 in scoring, field-goal percentage and free-throw percentage. Who was the last to do it?

Getting out the voter: The Philadelphia 76ers were kicked out of their hotel rooms in Miami recently when President Bush made a surprise visit. The Secret Service said it needed the rooms.

Said 76er forward Charles Barkley: “I can’t believe they let him bump us. I’ve been in the league six years. He’s been in one year. I voted for him, but he won’t be re-elected now.”

Add Barkley: Barkley, who is paid $3 million a year, has been fined $15,350 this season. He reportedly plans to deduct the fines from his income tax.

A vote for Davis: Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Press on the failure of the Raiders’ Al Davis to gain election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame:

“Al Davis is selfish, egomaniacal and mercenary and puts his own vibrancy and that of his Raiders ahead of all else, which is only what just about every owner in every sport is and does without penalty.

“His contribution, beyond the obvious, is that he has lent the league an antagonist franchise and kept the whole story line from being terminally, Establishment dull.

“How can you have a Hall of Fame without this guy? In time, that will qualify as a rhetorical question.”

The simple pleasures: Hall of Fame defensive lineman Art Donovan in “Fatso,” by Bob Drury, on today’s NFL salaries:

“I guess it’s good I got out when I did, because high finance for me is merely enough dough for a hunk of kosher salami or baloney, a loaf of Jewish rye and a case of Schlitz.”

Trivia answer: The Atlanta Hawks’ Lou Hudson.

Quotebook: Tom Miller, University of Colorado basketball coach, on playing top-ranked Missouri at Boulder, Colo., last Saturday, playing at No. 2 Kansas Wednesday and at Missouri Sunday: “One-two-one. I’m going to have to find out who made that schedule.”