What's the year-end championship race?

NT

so a horse like Secretariat.. races and wins all year.. gets hurt or skips the BC & Volponi wins the BC Classic.

Yes, Volponi should be the HOY.. anyone voting for Secretariat would just be, silly.

That was a hypothetical...

but I believe this was the initial idea of why the BC was born. Where it has gone since... well.. yea.

I knew someone would run with a horse injury analogy..


How about an analogy of my own? What if Michael Phelps wins every meet he enters for 3.5 years but then cannot enter the Olympics due to injury, should he be given the Gold medal(s)..? He is clearly the best...

There are winners and losers in every aspect, but in the least knowing as a trainer/owner/jockey that you must WIN this race at the end of the year to earn the award is black and white. Not gray all over like it is currently...

Is there a swimmer of the year award given annually? I think swimming might be the only sport ESPN might pre-empt for horse racing.

The Phelps thing is apples and oranges. More like apples and pillows, cause oranges are at least still a fruit.

You have to compete in the Olympics to win a medal (obviously)

YEAR end awards in Horse Racing represent a body of work for a YEAR.. its not Breeders Cup Champion of the Year... its the Horse of the Year.

Also, would they have had Olympic swimming being competed on pavement?

Cholorine vs. Salt Water vs. Fresh Water

I don't give a sh.it at all, to be honest. It's a popularity contest. All I know is I got to see the two best fillies/mares I've ever seen in my life three times this season live in person at the Oaks, Preakness, and Classic and see fans go bananas for them in a sport that needs something like this. That's what matters to me.

I was at all of those events but ran away when you waved at me.

Hahaha, I call BS, I don't think you really exist!

I have a bet with Veruca Salt that says I don't.

Nah, the Tony Awards get to air on network television.
I want an oompa loompa now!

I understand your points... what I am saying is, its obvious the BC purses aren't attractive enough to bring out ALL the talent. Excuses are made for shipping, racing surfaces, weather, footing, etc..

So maybe a slight change to how the awards are given away is in order...?

I'm sure they do, everything has a year end award for some reason or another...

# of Grade 1 stakes won.. times the amount of total purse money won. divided by 16

or some equation may do ;)

Golden Goggles. It's gayer than the Eclipse Awards.

If I had to rank the level of gay for awards shows going from gayest to gay...

Golden Goggles > Eclipse Awards > Daytime Emmy's

And then an end game of this...

I think a big part of the reason people care about end of the year awards is that they want to see history written the way they saw it happen. Twenty years from now they want to be able to say, "I saw Rachel Alexandra, the greatest filly of all-time! In '09 she won the Preakness, the Haskell, the Woodward, and f'in' everything!" and not have some snot-nosed punk pull out the racing almanac and say, "Yeah, but Zenyatta was HOY..."

And vice versa for Zenyatta fans.

I'm not taking sides on this one, but I think when the dust clears and the excitement over The Classic wanes, objective people will say Rachel Alexandra's campaign was more impressive, more stylish, and more attention-getting than Zenyatta's.

Some great players never got a ring because they happened to play in the time of the Jordan-era Bulls. Tough break.