Tops by division since 2010
 

Pick your winner from each category. Based on North American form.

2yo male: Uncle Mo, To Honor And Serve, Union Rags, Hansen

2yo filly: My Miss Aurelia or Awesome Feather

3yo male: I'll Have Another, Animal Kingdom, Lookin At Lucky, Bodemeister

3yo filly: Blind Luck or Royal Delta

Older Male: Wise Dan, Blame, or Fort Larned

Older female: Zenyatta, Havre De Grace, Royal Delta, or Blind Luck

Sprinter: Amazombie, Caleb's Posse, Big Drama

Female Sprinter: Groupie Doll is basically unopposed.

Male Turf horse: Wise Dan, Cape Blanco, Little Mike, Gio Ponti (form prior to 2010 doesn't count) Point of Entry

Female Turf horse: Goldikova is basically unopposed off of her 2010 BC Mile win.

...

For my own opinion:

2yo male: Uncle Mo is a lock. His Champagne win was far more spectacular than Union Rags ... and his BC Juvenile win was supersonic. You don't judge a 2yo by the after career...but he had physical setbacks before his 3yo season ever started.


2yo filly: My Miss Aurelia is a lock for me. She was fast sprinting, she went a few lengths faster than Union Rags at the same distance on the same day when he won the Champagne stylishly over good 3yo Alpha. MMA buried Grace Hall and crushed the rest in an above par BC Juvenile fillies win. Awesome Feather got better with the trainer change.

3yo male: I think Bodemeister was obviously the most talented 3yo we've seen... his Kentucky Derby performance was awesome stuff... where he outsprinted eventual BC Sprint winner Trinniberg, put five on them off the turn with a Rachel Alexandra like move -- before sh!ting the bed in mid-stretch. It was an incredible performance, but one that took its toll, obviously. Bodemeister's Arkansas Derby was also sensational. He went much faster than older males in the Oaklawn Park Handicap same day/same distance.

I will give the edge to I'll Have Another on account of the fact that he crossed the wire first in the two meetings, and W's and L's have to count for something at the end of the day.

3yo filly: Royal Delta was great in spots, but I felt like Blind Luck had the better 3yo season even though she failed to cap it off on BC Day against Havre De Grace.

Older Male: Edge to Wise Dan. Blame's campaign was soft enough at age 4 that it allowed HoY honors to be stolen from him by Zenyatta, even though she raced against tomato cans all year prior to the Breeders Cup.

Older Female: I think Royal Delta -- on her good day -- would have beaten the 2010 Zenyatta... a more consistent horse. Royal Delta squandered the first half of her 4yo season. I give Zenyatta the edge over Havre De Grace. Both of them had Horse of the Year winning campaigns thanks largely to the fact that none of the males impressed for the duration of a full season.

Sprinter: I guess Ambazombie just on the basis of body of work. He finally started to tail off in the fall of this season.

Female Sprinter: Groupie Doll would be this seasons champion sprinter if the Eclipse award was all gender ... like it had been in the past.

Male Turf Horse: Cape Blanco has done nothing but win Grade 1's here ... and Point Of Entry had an outstanding season ... but Wise Dan gets the edge. He made short work of accomplished Euro's in multiple races.

Female Turf Horse: Goldikova obviously on the basis of her Breeders Cup Mile win over the males .. and the fact that we haven't seen a lot of good female turfers here.

Most but one or two of these categories are complete no brainers.

I am pretty sure when 2019 comes around a horse like Amazombie will be out of the discussion for decades best sprinter.

Horses like I'll Have Another, Animal Kingdom, and Lookin At Lucky will certainly be out of the discussion for best 3-year-old.

Wise Dan will probably be in the discussion for Turf horse -- but I'm pretty sure he'll fall off the older male division he leads.

I am positive by 2019 THAS will be wayyy off that list. I am almost positive the same will be said for Hansen/Union Rags.

...

Why was Rachael Alexandria left off the voter's list?

I was wondering the exact same thing.

RA was a 3yo in 2009. Her 4yo season in 2010 was nothing spectacular at all.

Her big season was 2009? She didn't do much in 2010.

EDIT: Sorry; hadn't seen IC's post when I replied.

It comes back down to the Bodemeister VS I'll Have Another debate.

Who was the better 3yo? Obviously I believe Bodemeister was.

Who rates as the better 3yo? I'll Have Another does.

Rachel Alexandra made 5 starts as a 4-year-old, she won only a single Grade 2 stakes races and one ungraded stakes race at Monmouth.

RA had performances as a 4-year-old that I believe justify her with Zenyatta, Havre De Grace, and Royal Delta ... but Blind Luck had a Grade 1 win in the Vanity and she beat Horse of the Year Havre De Grace a nose in the Del Cap. They were close enough on ability in their good races to give BL the edge, since she was more accomplished in the comparable races on a 4yo form VS 4yo form basis.