My Eclipse Ballot
 

Horse of the Year: 1st - Wise Dan, 2nd - Mucho Macho Man, 3rd - Game On Dude

Two-Year-Old Male: 1st - Havana, 2nd - New Year's Day, 3rd - Honor Code
Two-Year-Old Filly: 1st - She's a Tiger, 2nd - My Conquestadory, 3rd - Ria Antonia

Three-Year-Old Male: 1st - Will Take Charge, 2nd - Verrazano, 3rd - Orb
Three-Year-Old Filly: 1st - Beholder, 2nd - Princess of Sylmar, 3rd - Close Hatches

Older Male: 1st - Mucho Macho Man, 2nd - Game On Dude, 3rd - Flat Out
Older Female: 1st - Royal Delta, 2nd - Authenticity, 3rd - Tiz Miz Sue

Male Sprinter: 1st - Points Offthebench, 2nd - Sahara Sky, 3rd - Private Zone
Female Sprinter: 1st - Groupie Doll, 2nd - Dance to Bristol, 3rd - Judy the Beauty

Male Turf Horse: 1st - Wise Dan, 2nd - Magician, 3rd - Point of Entry
Female Turf Horse: 1st - Dank, 2nd - Laughing, 3rd - Mizdirection

Steeplechase Horse: 1st - Gustavian, 2nd - Divine Fortune, 3rd - Italian Wedding

Owner: 1st - Ken and Katherine Ramsey, 2nd - Gary and Mary West, 3rd - Richard Santulli
Breeder: 1st - Ken and Katherine Ramsey, 2nd - Adena Springs, 3rd - Emory A. Hamilton

Jockey: 1st - Gary Stevens, 2nd - Joel Rosario, 3rd - Javier Castellano
Apprentice Jockey: 1st - Victor Carrasco, 2nd - Manny Franco, 3rd - Edgard Zayas

Trainer: 1st - Todd Pletcher, 2nd - Claude Ray McGaughey III, 3rd - Tom Proctor

As part of the balloting process, was shocked that Authenticity was somehow omitted from PP's sent to voters for Older Filly/Mare. She banked $883k in '13 earnings, 2nd to Royal Delta's $1.1MM. There were very few real candidates in the division and yet Funny Proposition -- a Fleur Dis Lis winner her lone graded stake start -- makes the list while 9/3-4-2 Authenticity doesn't. All Authenticity did was win the La Troienne and Shuvee and hit the board in all 4 of her G1 appearences: 3rd BC Distaff, 2nd Zenyatta, 2nd Personal Ensign, 2nd Ogden Phipps.

Along with Royal Delta and Funny Proposition on the list, the other stalwarts offered for your consideration were Byrama, Joyful Victory, Lady of Fifty, On Fire Baby and Tiz Miz Sue. It's a glaring mistake and not the only oversight...

Simply another in a long list of examples of wide spread racing industry incompetence

Stevens is amazing, and its an amazing story and I hope he keeps riding great for a long time, but the other 2 jocks had better years. I prefer Stevens all day especially to Javier, but whats fair is fair.

Is everyone's ballot public? If not, it should be.

All 3 -- and Mike Smith too -- deserve support. Castellano and Rosario will win plenty of Eclipse Awards in coming years and for me the Stevens season stands out as a unique and monumental accomplishment.

DRF and Turf Writers/Broadcasters segments are public. If I'm not mistaken, the NTRA votes as a 'block' and make-up of their balloting doesn't come out.

Delving further into other categories, some more bizarre omissions from printed PP's sent to voters? Animal Kingdom, Sweet Lulu, Streaming...

Well I appreciate that you made yours public.

Fair enough. And my personal preference is Smith and Stevens I love both of them.

Crazy... Not just because shes a Baffert, but Streaming could have actually won the thing.

I would probably vote Havana 2yr old champ. You can argue he was best in the BC Juvy and he won a really good Grade 1 in NY.
I’m interested to see Havana come back. He is going to be a really beast at Gulfstream. I’m sure he will be OK up to 9f on certain tracks.

Byk, no top 3 for Shared Belief??

I felt he was the biggest standout of their divisions, except for maybe the turf.

I think he would be hard pressed to beat any of the top 3 from NY on dirt at 8f-9f right now. Even the Lukas horse who won the Hopeful I think is at least as good as him. Why would that Hollywood Grade 1 mean more then The Hopeful or Champagne

Castellano will be the first rider to lead the nation in wins and earnings since Chris McCarron did it in 1980. It would be a travesty to see him lose an eclipse award to Stevens. Comeback considered... Castellano's accomplishments this year far surpass Stevens.

I believe Rosairo was having the better year until being injured during a crucial point of the year.

I'll say it again.... the first rider to lead the nation in wins and earnings in 23 years. That's the unique accomplishment here.

This -- along with Sweet Reason in the Fillies -- was a case of 4 pegs in 3 holes. Had him 2nd in first pass and then really looked at the 3 wins. Golden Gate MDN, beat nothing in Prevue and Futurity field is going to end up being highly mediocre, at best, in retrospect. I wasn't going to let the figs be the determinant. Havana likely wins Juvy with a decent post and is acclamation champ at that point. Honor Code couldn't be left off and New Year's Day deserved nod as Juvy winner. Very difficult and to some extent my decision was influenced by the fact Shared Belief did his work only on synthetic.

It's more esoteric for me than the numbers. 'Accomplishments' don't have to be measured linearly. Dale Romans didn't have raw numbers to win Trainer in 2012 but was overwhelmingly deserving.

You just said McCarron did it 23 years ago... so it's not unique. What Stevens has done is an unprecedented feat of athletic prowess. The only parallel I can think of immediately is Gordie Howe taking regular shifts in the NHL at 50+.

i think stevens is deserving. every year, you'll obviously have a jock with the most wins, and a jock with most money won. so, the reward for most money won, is a good bit of money.

Ya know, college boy, that it isn't unique if it's happened before. Plus, 33 years not 23.

Did you really graduate?

Animal Kingdom finished 2nd in his one US race. If he was an "omission" then surely there were MANY others.

Smells of anti satishism

Interesting you say that Fred because it popped into my head at first too. However, research into the situation with those most in the know brought out reality of simply a poor, sloppy execution of assembling the info.

Love you too. Surprised you would agree it should go to Stevens. You are right though a typo and some poor word usage are all the more reason to question whether I actually got my degree. If I had said Castellano's rare accomplishment would you still of jumped at the chance to point out my age? I'm supposed to run away and hide now right? That's no fun.

I am not saying what Stevens has done this year should go without praise but there are more deserving candidates for the award. The year Mike Smith had at 48 years old was just as good if not better than Stevens.

All starts

Smith - 422 84 64 45 $13,797,517 $32,696 20%
Stevens - 383 69 59 58 $11,910,748 $31,099 18%

Stakes

Smith - 155 34 24 18 $11,309,528 $72,965 22%
Stevens - 132 24 19 15 $9,513,509 $72,072 18%

Graded Stakes

Smith - 116 28 16 12 $10,718,963 $92,405 24%
Stevens - 93 18 10 9 $8,856,303 $95,229 19%

Each won a Triple Crown race. Smith won three breeders cup albeit of lesser prestige than Stevens Distaff and Classic. Gary is not the only old guy still getting it done.

The sheer volume of Castellano's accomplishments this year in my mind surpasses a great story and comeback from an older rider. The fact a rider can lead the nation in wins based out of the toughest place to win races in the US is remarkable.

I would give it to Javy.

I think Gary deserves special recognition.

Good to know you just wanted to take a shot at me then. Next time I say something stupid make sure to remind me of my youthful ignorance while agreeing with the general point of my post.

I was doing it out of the great love you know that I have for you.