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I'll start with these since they're the coolest of this year's
horses, though even they are not as nice as some from previous years.
For me, 1997 and 98 were awesome, 99 and 00 were disappointing, 01
and 02 were pretty good, and now 03 is on the lacking side. These
Hunters are really the only standouts here, and pickings are already
slim since it's a 3-breed group. The commentary is beginning now,
so I guess I should warn you guys that I am not that happy with the
GCs this year, so this page may sound whiney and critical.
(Moreso than usual.) 
Then we come to Sir Blitzer. The bad news is that he's in
the remold version of the canter (thick legs = Icky) and is
Empire's usual dapple: "Gray with Large Pieces of Evenly-spaced
Dandruff." This was cute the first time around with Snowy Knight,
but I think it started losing its charm around the time of The
Icing's family. 
Oh yeah, and the new kind of dapple, where the spots are only
on the shoulder and hip... This is good or bad depending on where
you like your dapples. Personally I prefer the Full-Body Dapple,
or maybe the Just-Rump Dapple (that's cute), but the shoulder/rump
thing with the skipped-barrel space... It's ehh. Maybe it's all
irrelevant because any of this type of Grand Champion dapples are not
believable in photo shows.
all around,
but in short: Better (Original) Mold, better shading in two colors,
cool silver hair and more interesting base color (seldom used dove
gray rather than plain gray). 
I'm annoyed by that. All these
horses that either have four socks, or none, or two in front and
none in back, or four socks that aren't really socks but are white
blended into the leg color.
It just seems like there are too many GCs like that, when random
sockage would be more realistic and set each horse apart. 
Hmm... This Ugly Mare remold makes
itself comfortable in the classic collection.
Talk about ICK? This is Ick. Very, very Ick.
It also makes us realize that Grand Champions
have not turned out a decent Classic mare
since 1998. Even Petal to the Metal was in this
altered mold, though I could forgive it because
she has nice markings and flecks. 
Anyway... So this mare. With that reddish orange color
and gray hooves and flourescent pink pad, it looks like
you could throw the whole thing in a blender and re-pour
it into another mold and get Duchess from '98.
She also looks like Maraschino, and Copper Penny
and Foxy Lady and Missouri Belle (I need another Missouri
Belle. Four is just not enough), and it's time
to retire the chestnut from this mold. We haven't seen
a nice palomino in the Classic
Mare for a while, so that would have been a better avenue here.
She does have some cool stuff, like two-toned hair and this
interesting gray shading on her under-seam... I'm all for that,
but it's just not
enough. I really didn't want this mare, and only purchased her
out of obligation to photo her for the site.
The big surprise here was that "Braveheart" turned out not
to be another Butterscotch, and "American Gold" is not a
palomino at all. And you can say what you want about the weird nose
on the Cutter, the wonky-angled legs on the Slider, his eyes are
too big, the head is too narrow, her cannons are too short, the
offside hoof looks like a slipper, he has no coronets, her barrel is
too deep ...
Whatever you like. 
So there you have the Big Irony of 2003. The two horses that
everyone expected would be the least interesting are actually the
most original and the only ones true to the Grand Champion name,
and the Polos and Hunters that should have been beautiful are
either inferior knockoffs of earlier horses, or in ugly, altered
molds ... Or both.
And that's the moral this time around, that Grand Champions have
surprises yet for us, or maybe that we need to get on Alpha and make
them aware of how much more beautiful the original molds were..