[2] Easy Goer, the 1988 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt finished second to Sunday Silence in the Kentucky Derby the Preakness, and the Breeders' Cup Classic.

[3] Blood-Horse pedigree expert Anne Peters speculated, "Had Sunday Silence retired in Kentucky, it's almost certain he would have tanked commercially and been exported in disgrace, but he found his perfect gene pool and thrived instead.

Sunday Silence began his three-year-old year by winning an allowance race at Santa Anita by four lengths which opened the door of Kentucky Derby potential.

[10] After stalking the pace and making his move around the turn, Sunday Silence and jockey Pat Valenzuela defeated Easy Goer by 2+1⁄2 lengths, in the slowest time (2:05) for a Kentucky Derby since 1958.

Daily Racing Form writer Dan Illman stated after Sunday Silence's victory that "the best horse won that afternoon.

"[12] Daily Racing Form chairman Steve Crist stated his opinion that "Easy Goer had a legitimate explanation for his defeat, as he didn't handle the muddy Churchill track.

Trainer Whittingham contacted well-known Kentucky veterinarian Alex Harthill, who diagnosed a bruise under the sole, a common injury that "wasn't a serious problem but it had happened at a serious time."

Redden and his assistant then flew via rented jet to Baltimore with the bar shoes and X-ray machine to confirm that no fracture was involved.

Meanwhile, unknown to the public at his rival's stable, throughout Preakness week (as late as Friday, the day before the race), Easy Goer's front feet were being soaked in tubs of Epsom salts due to small scratches or cracks on both heels.

[27][28][29] However, by virtue of his two Classic wins and his runner-up performance, Sunday Silence was awarded the third $1,000,000 Visa Triple Crown Bonus for best three-year-old in the series.

[30] From there he went to Louisiana Downs where he won the Grade I Super Derby on September 24, giving him six weeks' rest going into the Breeder's Cup Classic.

[31] Sunday Silence's jockey Pat Valenzuela had earlier been suspended for cocaine use and was replaced by Hall of Fame rider Chris McCarron.

Jockey Chris McCarron continued with a hand ride, and was able to withstand a strong late charge by Easy Goer to win the Classic by a neck.

At the age of four, Sunday Silence won the Californian and placed second in the Hollywood Gold Cup behind Criminal Type by a head, while giving away 5 pounds.

"[42] The electoral friction was ultimately reflected in the introduction to the Blood-Horse's "Top 100 Racehorses" book, which said, "For all the work and dreaming that went into it... one approaches the list... with a nagging sense of its folly as a rational exercise and of the maddening arbitrariness of its outcome.

However, one views this list of horses, whether in peace and contentment—or shock and dismay—all such judgments, of course, are entirely subjective, a mixture of whim, wisdom, and whatever prejudices howl through the back of the mind.

"[43] Since the Breeders’ Cup Classic was instituted in 1984, Alysheba and Sunday Silence were the only two horses to win three legs of a four-race sequence that was defined in 2015 as the Grand Slam of Thoroughbred racing: The Triple Crown races, plus the Breeders' Cup Classic, and Sunday Silence was the first horse to win three legs of the modern Grand Slam in the same year.

[44] Sunday Silence was sold to Japanese breeder Zenya Yoshida,[45] to stand at his Shadai Stallion Station in Shiraoi, Hokkaido.

Descendants of Sunday Silence have broken many earnings records, in part because he was active at the start of the "big crop" era (siring about 2000 foals) and also because the average purses in Japan are significantly higher than the rest of the world.

Conservative estimates on the earnings of Sunday Silence descendants place the total near JPY 80 billion (approximately $730 million according to Equibase).

c = colt, f = filly Many of Sunday Silence's sons have gone on to become successful breeding stallions, with at least seventeen of them siring Group or Grade I winners.

[50][51][52] When Blood-Horse magazine started to include Japanese earnings in their stallion rankings in 2016, Sunday Silence was the leading broodmare sire of the year.

He had been given a stronger dose of a different painkilling medication the previous day to provide him relief, and apparently as a result, he had become comfortable enough to lie down for the first time in a week.