Steve Haskin raises an interesting point in his latest Bloodhorse column - Flaxman Holdings unlucky to be shut out of the breeder/owner categories?

Congrats to the big mare...very deserved!

Two-Year-Old Male: American Pharoah, Hootenanny, Texas Red
Two-Year-Old Filly: Condo Commando, Lady Eli, Take Charge Brandi

Three-Year-Old Male: Bayern, California Chrome, Shared Belief
Three-Year-Old Filly: Stopchargingmaria, Sweet Reason, Untapable

Older Male: Main Sequence, Palace Malice, Wise Dan
Older Female: Close Hatches, Dayatthespa, Don’t Tell Sophia

Male Sprinter: Goldencents, Private Zone, Work All Week
Female Sprinter: Artemis Agrotera, Judy the Beauty, Sweet Reason

Male Turf Horse: Karakontie (JPN), Main Sequence, Wise Dan
Female Turf Horse: Crown Queen, Dayatthespa, Stephanie’s Kitten
Steeplechase Horse: Demonstrative, Divine Fortune, Makari (GB)

Owner: Kaleem Shah, Midwest Thoroughbreds, Ken and Sarah Ramsey
Breeder: Adena Springs, Ken and Sarah Ramsey, Winchell Thoroughbreds
Trainer: Bob Baffert, Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher

Jockey: Javier Castellano, Joel Rosario, John Velazquez
Apprentice Jockey: Angel Cruz, Taylor Rice, Drayden Van Dyke

Horse of the Year: Bayern, California Chrome, Main Sequence

:tro:

Horse of the Year: California Chrome, 143; Main Sequence, 53; Bayern, 36; Shared Belief, 12; Untapable, 11; Wise Dan, 6; Adelaide (IRE), 1; Take Charge Brandi, 1. Voter Abstentions, 2.

2-year-old male: American Pharoah, 126; Texas Red, 111; Hootenanny, 16; Carpe Diem, 7; Dortmund, 3; Ocho Ocho Ocho, 2.

2-year-old female: Take Charge Brandi, 236; Lady Eli, 23; Condo Commando, 3; Sunset Glow, 3

3-year-old male: California Chrome 193, Bayern 56, Shared Belief 15, Voter abstentions 1

3-year-old female: Untapable 265

Older male: Main Sequence 127, Palace Malice 103, Wise Dan 25 Goldencents 9, Game on Dude 1

Older female: Close Hatches 155, Dayatthespa 64, Don't Tell Sophia 19, Judy the Beauty 15, Iotapa 7, Beholder 5

Male sprinter: Work All Week 184, Goldencents 52, Palace 12, Private Zone 11, Bobby's Kitten 2, Bayern 1, Big Macher 1, Secret Circle 1, Shared Belief 1

Female sprinter: Judy the Beauty 261, Midnight Lucky 1, Living the Life (IRE) 1, La Verdad 1, Awesome Baby 1

Male turf: Main Sequence 243, Wise Dan 18, California Chrome 2, Karakontie (JPN) 1, Adelaide (AUS) 1

Female turf: Dayatthespa 260, Crown Queen 2, Coffee Clique 1, Room Service 1, voter abstentions 1

Steeplechase horse: Demonstrative 206, Divine Fortune 12, Decoy Daddy (IRE) 5, Makari 2, Voter abstentions 40

Jockey: Javier Castellano 203, John Velazquez 34, Mike Smith 8, Joel Rosario 8, Rosie Napravnik 5, Victor Espinoza 4, Irad Ortiz Jr, 2, Alexis Batista 1

Apprentice jockey: Drayden Van Dyke 225, Juan Saez 11, Trevor McCarthy 6, Taylor Rice 6, Voter abstentions 17

Trainer: Todd Pletcher 100, Chad Brown 64, Art Sherman 45, Bob Baffert 20, Graham Motion 13, Jerry Hollendorfer 11, Steve Asmussen 6, D. Wayne Lukas 3, Karl Broberg 1, Edward Graham 1, Mike Maker 1

Owner: Ken and Sarah Ramsey 179, Midwest Throughbreds 21, Kaleem Shah Inc. 20, Others: Flaxman Holdings Ltd 18, Steven Coburn and Perry Martin 6, Maggie Moss 2, John Oxley 1, Robert Evans 1, voter abstentions 5

Breeder: Ken and Sarah Ramsey 129, Adena Springs 43, Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC 43, Others: Flaxman Holdings Ltd. 29, Steven Coburn and Perry Martin 6, Helen Alexander 3, Winstar Farm 3, Darley 1, Midwest Thoroughbreds Inc. 1, voter abstentions 7

First choice selections of voters are above and as always, a number of head scratchers..

Horse of the Year: Adelaide (IRE), 1; Take Charge Brandi, 1
Older male: Game on Dude 1
Older female: Beholder 5
Female sprinter: La Verdad 1, Awesome Baby 1
Male turf: California Chrome 2
Female turf: Crown Queen 2, Coffee Clique 1, Room Service 1
Jockey: Alexis Batista 1

Always fun to see sources when voting is shown..

Adelaide and Take Charge Brandi for HOY!

Alexis Batista? 260/32-40-42 ($356,612)

I want to see voter names next to these choices, so we can publicly and verbally flog them.

HOY...Chrome 143, Bayern 36 ???
3YO Male...Chrome 193, Bayern 56 ???

popularity contest, I guess.

These same people voted for "Lisa's Booby Trap" in 2010.

Way too many voters are completely unqualified or simply don't take their responsibility seriously. Main Sequence beat Twilight Eclipse in two photos for half of his wins. In no way is he a more deserving Horse of the Year than Bayern. It is an indefensible "opinion" and no matter how much BS people want to spew that our turf racing, at the highest level, compares to turf racing overseas, it is simply untrue. If anything, Main Sequence proves that.

One thing seems certain, it will be more of an upset for a dirt horse to win older male than it used to be the other way around. What is that like 4-5 years in a row.

That is true. It is also true he beat the horse that finished 2nd in the Arc and then won the HK Vase. It is also true that Bayern just barely beat a horse that had never run on dirt by a nose. Main Sequence is not great by any means, but he did have a very good season. The thing that is most clear though is that the silly season is at last over and we can get back to actual races.

Let's not debate the terrible voters. They are bad. The horse with the toughest and most comprehensive campaign won. California Chrome. He raced nine times, won 6 stakes, 5 Graded stakes, 4 G1 stakes over two different surfaces and missed in the Classic by a neck. The horse who did the most actually won for a change.

i'd imagine many of those voters saw that cc won the derby, and that's as far as they went...

In your opinion he had the "toughest and most comprehensive campaign." I don't agree. Bayern travelled much more, covered different distances successfully, and beat CA Chrome in the two races that they met. I thought his campaign was better. It's a matter of opinion.

Ditto

Bayern traveled much more? They both ran at CD and in the Preakness.

CC ran in the Belmont, Bayern the Haskell. Then they both ran in Pennsylvania.

Did I leave out a race? I think Bayern ran in Arkansas, which would give him one more out of state race, but that doesn't seem like he traveled much more.

Also, Bayern won two of the three meetings, not two of two.

The resumes were pretty comparable if you look at them side by side, though Bayern did have one more race. Two of those ten starts were a MSW and an alw.

I would argue when it comes to voters and 3 year old awards that 1 Preakness win trumps wins in the BC and Penn Derby. Whether that is fair or not I think thats the way it is seen.

I don't believe it is as static as you are suggesting. The company that CC kept in California vs. what Bayern faced later in the year is telling. How many Kentucky Derby runners even raced again in graded company, much less did anything after the TC?

I maintained all year that it was the weakest TC crop that I have seen in a good while.

Bayern beat CC on the square in Pennsylvania. You can (and many have) make a case against Bayern for the break in the BC, but you then have to equally make the same case that Ring Weekend took away any possible chance Bayern may have had in the Preakness.

CC never showed up again after faltering in the Belmont. Oh, unless, with a straight face, you are going to make the case that the Hollywood Derby was a true Grade 1 test of chanpions :zz: Then yes, after being soundly schooled in the BC, he DID manage to hold off the world beater Lexie Lou by diminishing lengths in the Hollywood Derby.

You left a lot out. Bayern also went to Belmont on Belmont Stakes day...and ran one of the best dirt races of the year in winning the Woody Stephens. He also travelled to Saratoga after the Haskell to contest the Travers. So, yes, he travelled significantly more than CA Chrome.

2 things that I'm guessing a bunch of voters could not forget:

1. CC's TC races.
2. Bayern getting depantsed in the Travers.

I think we're giving some voters too much credit in thinking that they might have taken things like travel into account. They are the same people that voted Zenyatta over Blame. And while CC's G1 turf win wasn't impressive whatsoever and he beat nothing, I think it also gave some voters the excuse they were looking for to vote CC #1.

Yeah, I did forget those.