Sunday Silence
The rivalry with Sunday Silence concluded in the Breeders' Cup Classic, run on November 4 at miles. With champion honors at stake, the race was labeled "Race of the Decade" by the horse racing media. Easy Goer was favored by the wagering public based on his Belmont Stakes win and four subsequent Grade I wins, three against older horses. Sunday Silence's regular rider, Patrick Valenzuela, had recently been suspended for cocaine use. Trainer Charles E. Whittingham assigned the mount to Chris McCarron. Easy Goer came into the 10-furlong Classic off the 12-furlong Gold Cup, run on October 7—a potentially difficult parlay for a trainer, because the longer race can have the hazardous consequence of dulling the colt's natural speed and blunting the quickness that he might need in a shorter race, while generating the horse's stamina at the expense of speediness. In contrast, trainer Charlie Whittingham had run Sunday Silence only twice in the five months since the Belmont, both times over a -mile distance—in the Grade II Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park, where he finished second, and two months later in the Sept. 24 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs, which he won, giving him six weeks rest into the Classic. Easy Goer ran 11 lengths off the lead, about seven lengths behind Sunday Silence, behind the brisk opening fractions of and , but made a big run down the backstretch and got near his rival at the half-mile point. Sunday Silence then made a charge turning for home and gained the lead in the final furlong, four lengths ahead of Easy Goer. Easy Goer closed ground late with another big move but lost by a diminishing neck to Sunday Silence, who was under strong urging by McCarron, with a final time of . Both Sunday Silence and Easy Goer earned brilliant 124 speed figures in the 1989 Breeders' Cup Classic, which tied for the highest speed figure earned in any Breeders' Cup race. Blushing John, the American Champion Older Dirt Male Horse that year, finished behind the top two in third. The victory assured Sunday Silence Eclipse Award for Outstanding Three-Year-Old Male Horse and Horse of the Year honors for 1989. After the race, McGaughey said, "Sunday Silence had a perfect trip and we made a couple of mistakes. Pat and I agree that he made riding mistakes in the Preakness. But in the other races, there were circumstances that contributed to what happened. Maybe when Pat grabbed him after the start, the horse didn't understand what he was doing. Then Pat was content to sit and wait behind Sunday Silence, as he had done before, and the other horse got away from us. In my heart, I think Easy Goer is the better horse; I think anybody would say that if those two ran against each other ten times, each would probably win five." Day said his ride wasn't the best, while also stating, "I've said it before, I think Easy Goer was better than Sunday Silence, despite his three to one edge in the head to head races. I'll go to my grave believing that. We lost two photos to him and the one in the Preakness was due to a rider error on my part." Current Daily Racing Form publisher Steven Crist stated in his "New York Times" article in January 1990 that had the question on the ballot been, "Who is the better horse, Sunday Silence or Easy Goer?", his view was that a lot more than 19 people would have voted against Sunday Silence. Crist also stated, "Easy Goer was a great horse and so was Sunday Silence. I still think Easy Goer had more pure, raw talent. Sunday Silence held the three to one edge over Easy Goer in the races they met, but he never beat him in a way that proved he was just plain better. In Easy Goer's best race, he walloped Sunday Silence by eight lengths in the Belmont. In a few of his close defeats, Easy Goer had legitimate excuses: he lost the Derby on a muddy track he had difficulty handling, and lost the Preakness by only a nose after a dubious ride. In the Classic, where Sunday Silence held him off by a neck, Easy Goer just missed, but left no one thinking it could not have gone the other way." Daily Racing Form's Mike Watchmaker concurred, stating, "To this day, you won't have any trouble finding people who believe that Easy Goer was a better racehorse than Sunday Silence. I know this, because I am one of them." "Paul Moran of the "Los Angeles Times" and "Newsday" agreed, stating, "Sunday Silence is Horse of the Year, but most still believe Easy Goer is the better horse. Sunday Silence is Horse of the Year despite never having won at a mile and a half (the classic distance for most of the world) and never having given weight while defeating older horses, as Easy Goer did in three races. He is Horse of the Year despite going one for three during a span of five months while Easy Goer won the Belmont, Whitney, Travers, Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup."