2018 B.C. (Before Covid) was a simpler time. A time where no one considered color matching their mask to their seersucker. It also was a time when one of the all-time horse racing underdogs flashed an ability rarely seen in the sport, and even more rarely took time to develop that ability into habit.

Winning the Breeders’ Futurity in 2018. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Knicks Go was a 70-1 shot in the 2018 Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity Oct. 6 at Keeneland. He was one of those classic, “The connections are over their skis” entries, i.e. the longest of shots on the toteboard. Then he won – but not only won, he blew out the field. It’s one thing when a massive longshot wins like the way Bourbonic was a shocker at the wire in the Resorts World Casino Wood Memorial earlier this year. It’s a whole other thing when the longshot runs like a 1-9 favorite.

Knicks Go earned his way into the Breeders’ Cup that year and proved with a second-place finish in the Juvenile that he wasn’t a fluke. But after that, he wouldn’t win again until shortly before we began life as we now know it – masks, vaccines, empty racetracks et al.

And this is the part of the story where Knicks Go turns into the best horse in America (I Think). He’s going to be racing in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic as a 5-year-old favorite (or close to it depending on how everyone thinks about Essential Quality), and streaking toward one of the best seasons any older horse has ever had.

The odd part about his ascent is the fact that the connections of Knicks Go never seemed to get too far ahead of themselves along the journey, even when he went over a year without winning. After a subpar 3-year-old season in 2019 where he failed to hit the board in six graded stakes (although he almost won the Ellis Park Derby in the summer), he was switched to trainer Brad Cox to kick off his 4-year-old campaign in 2020 and Cox was patient with him, racing him only once in February at Oaklawn Park and once at Keeneland in October – both blowout allowance wins –  before he stepped up to dominate the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in November and prove he was no one-hit wonder.

And it is why I appreciate Knicks Go for what he is – a fighter, proof that your story doesn’t have to be told during your oddly unsuccessful 3-year-old season. That you have enough maturity, desire and resilience to strive to be your best even if everyone thinks your best is in your past.

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Now 2021 rolls around, and suddenly Knicks Go, at a mature age, became the most stunning competitor in the country. And this time his connections decided, “no guts no glory.” For their confidence, all Knicks Go did was demand bigger stages. He blasted off at the Pegasus World Cup Invitational in January at Gulfstream Park. It led to a wild ride in Saudi Arabia that didn’t work out as planned when he was fourth in the lucrative Saudi Cup, but unlike some of his big time predecessors, the trip to the Middle East didn’t stop his stateside momentum.

Knicks Go needed an American warmup in the Hill ‘n’ Dale Met Mile in June, but since that fourth-place finish he’s become a dominator again. Sure his romp at Prairie Meadows in the Cornhusker Handicap can be brushed off as easy pickings, but check out the field and you’ll see some star power who went to the horse racing field of dreams with him. As for the outcome – it was a Lamborghini against some used mopeds.

Then at the Spa he destroyed the field in the vaunted Whitney Stakes. Based on that, if he takes care of business in the Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs in a few weeks he’ll head to Del Mar this fall as a handicappers dream/nightmare (this is once again dependent on if Essential Quality gets the public backing). On the big stages of the Breeders Cup, Knicks Go will become everything you’d want in a champion. Many will go against him because of the topsy-turvy nature of his showings. One day he’s Superman, and the next he’s just Clark Kent.

But that’s fine with me. Throughout this awful time dealing with a health crisis, we’ve all had our heroic days and those where we weren’t even presentable on Zoom. I get it. I understand it. To me, Knicks Go represents persistence and that on our best days we can be great. And that’s why I’ll be rooting for the Maryland-bred who no one thought anything of three years ago and who shocked the world, then went back to being mortal and was asked to show off his superpowers again – which he did.

We are all Knicks Go.