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+.