Eclipse voting
 

Someone voted for Tale of Ekati for Champion 3YO and Henrythenavigator for Male turf horse?!?!?

I can't say I'm not disappointed that Music Note didn't win, but she deserved to finishe ahead of Eight Belles -no knocks on Eight Belle, of course. I just thought Music Note had a tremendous season.

I want somebody to tell me how Adena won the Champion Owner award.

Say whatever you want about IEAH, complain about Iavarone, the way they buy horse, etc. but they had a huge year and compared to Stronach?

Did I miss some races throughout the year that Stronach won? I was absolutely dumbfounded at the result.

For what it's worth, I also thought Stonerside should have gotten the Champion Breeder award, but I'm horribly biased. I guess breeding Midshipman and Raven's Pass was not a big enough accomplishment.

NT

So who were the two voters who voted for Ginger Punch over Zenyatta, they should have their votes revoked.

How about the one who voted for Peppers Pride as HOTY?

NT

http://www.drf.com/eclipse/2008/votes.html

Three people also voted for Bustin Stones as the champion older sprinter. Joe Rocco as outstanding jockey is another one of my favorites, as is Chamisa Goodwin as champion apprentice, and both Howard Wolfendale and Mike DeKock as champion trainer.

NT

I think Visionaire's one vote for sprinter and Albertus Maximus's vote for older horse take the cake...

You're absolutely correct and I agree with you 100% on that!

How could Conduit get Male Turf Horse Of The Year off of only one North American start? They should have some kind of rules like Canada has for thier version if im not mistaken isn't thier version called the Sovereign Awards?

They are probably the same people that didn't vote for Rickey Henderson.

They really should.

I'll assume that you are a fairly new fan so I'll explain to you that horses winning the award off of only one NA start is hardly unprecedented. The list of such winners includes Miesque (twice), Arazi, Daylami, Johannesburgh, Ouija Board (twice), Kalanisi, Islington, Singspiel, and High Chaparral (twice). The interesting thing about Singspiel is that he never won a race in the United States during the year he won his award. He won a race in Canada and finished second in the BC but still won the award. The interesting thing about High Chaparral's second win is that he didn't even win his one race outright, finishing in a dead-heat with Johar in the BC yet still being voted as the NA champion. So having that in mind, you have your answer as to how Conduit could win the award. Whether you think it's fair or not or if you think the rules should be changed are a different discussion. Under the current rules, it's fair.

Ive been following this great sport for years now. Let me ask you this if an American won a race like the Prix De La Arc Triomphe do you think it would will the Cartier Award off of just that one European start. Probably not. I dont think its right to reward a horse who has just one North American start. The list of the winners you i do remember especially the High Chaparral's dead heat with Johar. That was the year that Richard Mandella won four Breeders Cup race on one day. You gave a pretty opinion and I respect it, but I must say I also disagree with it.

there were plenty of folks who thought GZ should have gotten HOY that year he ran once, that the performance was that good.
i disagreed with that as well-i don't think conduit should have gotten it-problem is, there was no compelling alternative.

but Henrythenavigator NEVER ran on the turf in this country!?!? at least those two horses ran in the US.

If, and BIG IF, Curlin would have taken to the turf and won the Arc, I have no doubt, that he would have won the Cartier Award...

I can't comment completely on the question that you asked because I don't know the necessary criteria needed to be considered for a Cartier. I'd like to hope that the Europeans are smarter in this area and have made it mandatory to have the majority of your starts in Europe or at least more than one but I don't know. I do know that if an American went over and won once, he wouldn't win any awards but again, I don't know if it's because of rules or because they have more common sense. I wish the Americans did also. I personally don't like the fact that a one-time winner can walk away with the award and think the criteria should be changed. However, until it is, I also have a hard time not supporting a Euro winner. The criteria simply says that a horse has to have made at least one NA start and it's hard for me, in a situation like Raven's Pass vs. Big Brown, to believe that Raven's Pass is not the most deserving. I believe his one start was better than Big Brown's best was. Also, it's unfair to stop giving awards to current horses when others have won it without changing the system. One thing that the Euros would never do is open the floodgates from the start, which the Americans did. If you don't want to award Conduit this year, they should have never awarded any of those past winners.

That's it for me folks.....
I'm done with this sport.