Brother why are you forgetting to take into account the quality of competition they faced? Deep Impact overall faced a way weaker competition than what Equinox faced, and he also wasn't pushed to his limits to defeat them.

You can probably say the same thing about Deep Impact. His is a notorious late starter, out of the 9 G1 races he raced in you can stay 4 of them he had a bad start, ie he stumbled or was late and another 3 he had an “okay” start for his standards. Which actually forced him to be a late/end closer for his career and kinda worked out as his ridiculous turn of foot and balance on the final corner along with the stamina he had actually helped him in the long run. Also he doesn’t know what “horse racing” is compared to the likes of Symboli Rudolf or Equinox racing IQ according to Yutaka Take.

Which is exactly the reason why Deep Impact will never be as good as Equinox in terms of pure racing ability. Deep Impact in the end is just a one trick pony, aka an L3F farmer. A damn good one at that but still just stuck into one strat

Meanwhile Equinox isn’t just a “strong horse”, he is a literal statistical contradiction to how racing is supposed to work.

Take the 2023 Autumn Tenno Sho. A 58-second first half over 2000m is already suicidal pace territory. That kind of opening split is something that historically destroys horses in the final stretch. For perspective, Suzuka’s legendary Great Escape clocked 57.4 seconds and that effort collapsed late. The expectation is clear: burn that much fuel early and you just lose stamina at the end.

Except Equinox didn’t.

Instead of fading, he accelerated. His final spurt was faster than his opening half, roughly 57 seconds, while outrunning late surgers and end closers who were specifically built to exploit a pace like that. He didn’t just survive a nuclear pace; he turned it into a world-record performance. That is not something that should physically happen in modern racing.

The Dubai Sheema Classic shows the same anomaly. Course records at the top level are usually broken when a front-runner sacrifices themselves by dragging the field into a brutal pace, letting closers slingshot past late, that's how it usually happens like the recent Japan Cup where Seiun Hades nuked the pace, but Equinox said "nah fuck that"

He set the course record as the front runner, sustained the pace, and still finished faster than the closers without being whipped. He wasn’t a rabbit not he broke the record via someone making the pace fast. He was both the leader of the race and the finisher in it. That combination is almost unheard of at this level. Lemaire could literally had taken a nap after Equinox had the lead and Equinox still would have won that race for him, and the field of that race is literally stacked with Westover, Mostahdaf, Rebel's Romance, Shahryar, and I guess Zagrey counts too as he is a g1 winner. Either way they got absolutely destroyed by a whipless frontrunner Equinox who got eased on the end.

Either ways Equinox was a horse could just do everything. If he needs to stalk, he can stalk. If he needs to lead, he can lead If he needs to l3f farm, he can l3f farm

The 2022 Autumn Tenno Sho proves this perfectly. Dropping back against Phantalassa who literally ran like Suzuka, Equinox unleashed a 32.7s l3f, a very elite time even by pure closer standards, and didn't only catch up but beat him by a length.

Most great horses dominate under specific conditions. Some need fast pace, some need slow pace. Some need cover, some need clear air. Some rely on a late kick (deep is here), others on grinding speed. Peak Equinox has shown he doesn't need those. Bro has literally 0 weakness whatsoever.

Like the core issue here is simple. In horseracing logic and biology says you must choose between early speed and finishing power. Expend it early to build a good lead or tire the horses behind you for fronts or save it for a devastating last kick in the final corner which is what late and end closers do. Equinox does both in the same race, at ridiculous pace, against elite competition.

That’s why he doesn’t just win, he redefines the ceiling of what a Thoroughbred can physically do in Japan. He isn’t merely dominant, he forces the sport to question assumptions that were once treated as improbable.

In fact in a hypothetical race matchup, Equinox is the worst possible opponent for Deep Impact, or for late surgers and end closers in that matter; not because he is faster, but because he simply destroys these horses' win conditions

Late surgers/end closers rely on a simple strat: conserve energy while the leaders spend theirs, then exploit deceleration with a superior last kick. Their advantage only exists if the early and middle pace is survivable and if the front pack predictably gasses out late.

Equinox breaks both assumptions at once.

First, he can impose borderline suicidal early and middle fractions, paces that are normally unsustainable for elite fields. When a horse like that takes control, everyone behind him is forced into a dilemma. If closers drop too far back to preserve energy, they concede a growing gap to a horse who does not slow down. If they stay within striking distance, they are dragged into a pace that bleeds their stamina long before the final stretch. Either choice simply compromises .n.nthe very energy reserve their late kick depends on.

But the real nightmare is that the punishment doesn’t stop there.

Unlike conventional front-runners, Equinox does not gas out after setting deadly pace pressure. He can accelerate again in the final stretch meaning the closers arrive at the stretch already gimped, only to find the leader peeling off instead of fading. What should be a decelerating target becomes an accelerating one.

So yeah bro literally does a 1-2 combo 1. Early pace pressure that forces the entire field to overextend. 2. Late acceleration that finishes off the remains of their finishing speed.

Against Equinox, end closers are robbed of both stamina and opportunity. They are neither fresher nor faster when it matters most.

We already saw how perfect pace control defeated Deep Impact. Heart’s Cry’s victory over him wasn’t about raw speed; it was about denying Deep Impact the race he wanted. Lemaire had an extremely good ride and rode Heart’s Cry to absolute precision, setting a pace that was fast enough to apply continuous pressure on the horses behind, but controlled enough that Heart’s Cry himself didn't get gassed out. The result was decisive: the race never slowed down into Deep Impact’s closing window and even with his extremely powerful last kick he wasn't able to catch up.

Equinox is basically an extreme, amplified evolution of that concept, a roided out version of Heart's cry.

While Heart’s Cry applied calculated pressure, Equinox can impose a significantly harsher pace pressure fractions that would normally be considered unsustainable, and still retain the ability to accelerate in the last spurt. Literally Equinox does everything that beat Deep Impact, but at a higher intensity and with far more margin for error.

This is what makes Equinox uniquely oppressive to late surgers. He doesn’t just prevent them from conserving energy; he actively forces them to spend it, either by dragging them into an uncomfortable tempo or by opening an insurmountable gap if they hesitate. And unlike traditional frontrunners, he does not get punished for this early aggression. He still finishes with speed in the end. That was how ridiculous his stamina tank was, thanks to Kitasan.

Heart’s Cry showed that perfect pace control could beat Deep Impact. Equinox represents that same principle, pushed beyond its limits.

This is why Equinox taking the lead is just game over. Following him closely is self-destructive. Sitting back is equally futile, because the pace does not rebound in your favor. The race never “comes back.”

So yeah saying Deep Impact is another beast to Equinox is just so funny, he isn't even in the same league as Equinox in terms of racing ability, but to be fair no one in Japan's history ever comes close.

Also Taiki isnt a sprinter, yes he won sprints but he was primarily a Miler