2018 Eclipse Award Ballot & Discussion ~ HOY to Justify
 

Horse of the Year: 1st - Justify, 2nd - Accelerate, 3rd - Monomoy Girl

Two-Year-Old Male: 1st - Game Winner, 2nd - Improbable, 3rd - Maximus Mischief
Two-Year-Old Filly: 1st - Jaywalk, 2nd - Newspaperofrecord, 3rd - Chasing Yesterday

Three-Year-Old Male: 1st - Justify, 2nd - Good Magic , 3rd - McKinzie
Three-Year-Old Filly: 1st - Monomoy Girl, 2nd - Midnight Bisou, 3rd - Rushing Fall

Older Dirt Male: 1st - Accelerate, 2nd - City of Light, 3rd - Mind Your Biscuits
Older Dirt Female: 1st - Blue Prize-ARG, 2nd - Wow Cat-CHI, 3rd - Divine Miss Grey Unique Bella

Male Sprinter: 1st - Roy H, 2nd - Whitmore, 3rd - Imperial Hint
Female Sprinter: 1st - Shamrock Rose, 2nd - Marley's Freedom, 3rd - Vertical Oak

Male Turf Horse: 1st - Glorious Empire , 2nd - Stormy Liberal, 3rd - Sadler's Joy
Female Turf Horse: 1st - Sistercharlie-IRE, 2nd - A Raving Beauty-GER, 3rd - Fourstar Crook

Steeplechase Horse: 1st - Zanjabeel-GB, 2nd - Optimus Prime-FR, 3rd - Iranistan

Jockey: 1st - Irad Ortiz Jr., 2nd - Joel Rosario, 3rd - Jose Ortiz
Apprentice Jockey: 1st - Wes Hamilton, 2nd - Edgar Morales, 3rd - Reylu Gutierrez

Owner: 1st - Hronis Racing LLC, 2nd - Klaravich Stables, 3rd - Peter M. Brant
Breeder: 1st - John D. Gunther, 2nd - Summer Wind Equine, 3rd - Fred Hertrich & John Fielding

Trainer: 1st - Chad Brown, 2nd - Bob Baffert , 3rd - Brad Cox

I of course likeCatholicBoy better then Good Magic. Winning the G1 Belmont derby on turf then coming back to win Travers G1 on Dirtwas fun to watch

Understand the sentiment.. I've been convinced Good Magic was 2nd best 3yo since summer and deserves that recognition. He had a more complete season than Catholic Boy between a Classics prep win, the 2 best non-Justify efforts in the Classics and a post-Classics G1 win.

McKinzie leapfrogged Catholic Boy for me with the Malibu win. I think it's inarguable that beyond the Triple Crown winner he was the most talented sophomore.

The best 2-year-old filly is Newspaperofrecord. She would be my 3rd choice for HoY. I have seen plenty of Jaywalks and Monomoy Girls and Roy H's etc. Newspaperofrecord is why you watch, the time when every so often, a horse competes at an entirely different level from their peers. She might be my number 2 choice for HoY.

I am personally biased towards Newspaperofrecord, but I understand why Jaywalk is going to win, but I actually think this is probably the most compelling argument for Newspaper ( and, as much as I personally like Freddy, I rarely agree with him ).

Horses like Newspaperofrecord are memorable in ways that most horses are not.

Best moments of 2018 in no particular order:

1. Army Mule's Carter
2. Newspaperofrecords BC
3. Discreet Lovers JCGC
4. TC
5. Enable BC
6. Catholic Boys BD

To me, those were the best stories and horses of 2018 the rest is just bookkeeping. All the upcoming winners had wonderful years and I am sure mean the world to their respective connections, as they should.

I’ll probably be ridiculed for this being a weak opinion, but I’d say Imperial Hint’s win in the VANDERBILT ranks up there for me. May the laughing begiiiiiiin haha

The way he powered down the stretch was an awesome thing to be watching.

And although their second meeting cost me BEAUCOUP BUX, the Catholic Boy/Analyze It stretch battles were really entertaining.

The complete list of Eclipse Award finalists is as follows:

Horse of the Year

Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky)
Justify (Scat Daddy)
Monomoy Girl (Tapizar)

3-Year-Old Male

Catholic Boy (More Than Ready)
Justify (Scat Daddy)
McKinzie (Street Sense)

3-Year-Old Female

Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute)
Monomoy Girl (Tapizar)
Rushing Fall (More Than Ready)

2-Year-Old Male

Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg})
Improbable (City Zip)
Knicks Go (Paynter)

2-Year-Old Female

Bellafina (Quality Road)
Jaywalk (Cross Traffic)
Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire})

Male Sprinter

Imperial Hint (Imperialism)
Roy H (More Than Ready)
Stormy Liberal (Stormy Atlantic)

Female Sprinter

Finley’sluckycharm (Twirling Candy)
Marley’s Freedom (Blame)
Shamrock Rose (First Dude)

Male Turf Horse

Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB})
Glorious Empire (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire})
Stormy Liberal (Stormy Atlantic)

Female Turf Horse

A Raving Beauty (Ger) (Mastercraftsman {Ire})
Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire})
Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire})

Older Dirt Male

Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky)
City of Light (Quality Road)
Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg})

Older Dirt Female

Abel Tasman (Quality Road)
Marley’s Freedom (Blame)
Unique Bella (Tapit)

Steeplechase

Jury Duty (Ire) (Well Chosen {GB})
Optimus Prime (Fr) (Deportivo {GB})
Zanjabeel (GB) (Aussie Rules)

Breeder

Mike Abraham
John D Gunther
WinStar Farm LLC

Owner

Peter Brant
Hronis Racing LLC
Team Justify

Apprentice Jockey

Reylu Gutierrez
Weston Hamilton
Edgar Morales

Jockey

Irad Ortiz, Jr.
Jose Ortiz
Mike Smith

Trainer

Steve Asmussen
Bob Baffert
Chad Brown

Another poor job by the voters in the human categories. Such a disgrace.

Eclipse Winners:


2-Year-Old Male

Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg})
Improbable (City Zip)
Knicks Go (Paynter)

2-Year-Old Female

Bellafina (Quality Road)
Jaywalk (Cross Traffic)
Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire})


3-Year-Old Male

Catholic Boy (More Than Ready)
Justify (Scat Daddy)
McKinzie (Street Sense)

3-Year-Old Female

Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute)
Monomoy Girl (Tapizar)
Rushing Fall (More Than Ready)


Male Sprinter

Imperial Hint (Imperialism)
Roy H (More Than Ready)
Stormy Liberal (Stormy Atlantic)

Female Sprinter

Finley’sluckycharm (Twirling Candy)
Marley’s Freedom (Blame)
Shamrock Rose (First Dude)


Older Dirt Male

Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky)
City of Light (Quality Road)
Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg})

Older Dirt Female

Abel Tasman (Quality Road)
Marley’s Freedom (Blame)
Unique Bella (Tapit)


Male Turf Horse

Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB})
Glorious Empire (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire})
Stormy Liberal (Stormy Atlantic)

Female Turf Horse

A Raving Beauty (Ger) (Mastercraftsman {Ire})
Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire})
Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire})


Steeplechase

Jury Duty (Ire) (Well Chosen {GB})
Optimus Prime (Fr) (Deportivo {GB})
Zanjabeel (GB) (Aussie Rules)


Apprentice Jockey

Reylu Gutierrez
Weston Hamilton
Edgar Morales


Jockey

Irad Ortiz, Jr.
Jose Ortiz
Mike Smith


Breeder

Mike Abraham
John D Gunther
WinStar Farm LLC


Owner

Peter Brant
Hronis Racing LLC
Team Justify


Trainer

Steve Asmussen
Bob Baffert
Chad Brown

Horse of the Year

Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky)
Justify (Scat Daddy)
Monomoy Girl (Tapizar)

They got Hoss of the year right. Undefeated triple crown winner who didn't run at 2 . Congratulations Justify .
Was there any talk of longer Saratoga meet with Monday Tuesday dark ? Makes sense since attendance is sparse downstate.

It was quite an accomplishment.

But I was (with little hope) pulling for Accelerate. For among other reasons:

"He capped off his season beating more Grade 1 winners in the Breeder’s Cup Classic then Justify beat in his entire career."
--Chip Gehrke, Horseracingnation.com

Both won 6
 

Accelerate ran one more race than Justify. Not the strongest set of older either.

There’s some preposterous crap on the Internet, but this may be the all-time dumbest.

Justify was only eligible to beat the winners of the G1’s between juvenile season and the Triple Crown..

Hopeful - Sporting Chance
Champagne - Firenze Fire
DMR Futurity - Bolt d’Oro
Breeders Futurity - Free Drop Billy
Los Al Futurity - McKinzie (Solomini-DQ'd)
AmPharoah/FrontRunner - Bolt d'Oro
BC Juvenile - Good Magic
BC Juvenile Turf - Mendelssohn
Florida Derby - Audible
Arkansas Derby - Magnum Moon

HE BEAT EVERY ONE OF THEM EXCEPT McKINZIE.. WHOM HE COULDN’T FACE.

There weren’t any other G1 winners that he could run against. WTF?

With all due respect, who is Chip Gehrke and why should we care one iota what he has to say?

I’m not sure how anyone thinks they saw a better female turf runner in this country in 2018 than Enable.

No doubt, but does that demand she be the Division Champion? The Euro 'one start' campaigners are a weird dynamic for voting purposes.

It is a debate that I understand. My reasoning has always been that precedent ha been set. Many single race Europeans have won titles. I always go back to Singspiel, who won the title and never won a race in this country. My position has always been if they want to change the rules to say a horse needs to have a minimum of starts here like 3-4 or maybe the majority of your starts have to be here, I’m ok with that. But until that happens, I think they should stick with awarding the best of those that’s most qualified. Having said that, I would have had no problem at all with Gun Runner being champion this year or Ghostzapper being champion in 2005. If one race is good enough to win a title, as has been done many times, who says that one race has to be in the Breeders’ Cup?