[King Glorious]

I'm going to make an argument here that I don't know if I even whole heartedly believe in myself but I feel it's worth at least a passing thought. In 2003, I supported a horse named Candy Ride for HOY. As anyone that has read anything I post on here knows, I don't think a horse has to run any certain number of races or win any specific ones in order to be considered for an Eclipse Award. The only listed criteria for consideration for the awards is that a horse start at least once in NA. It was under this same line of thinking that I supported Ghostzapper as a repeat HOY in 2005. If one performance can win an award in the other divisions, as it often does in the sprint, grass, and 2yo divisions, why not for older male or HOY? And who says that one outstanding performance has to be in the Breeders' Cup? Can anyone disagree that Ghostzapper's 2005 Met Mile was the single best performance of the year by any horse? Getting back to Candy Ride, I didn't think he had done enough on the dirt to deserve the award over Pleasantly Perfect, Medaglia d' Oro, and maybe even Mineshaft. I also didn't think he had done enough on the grass to deserve it over Johar, Sulamani, or Storming Home. But I thought his COMBINED efforts on both surfaces, where he beat top class horses on each while running some very fast races, were enough to stamp him out as the overall best horse of 2003. This was an argument that many didn't agree with then and I'm sure still wouldn't agree with now. Which brings me to 2008.

Should Einstein be in the conversation for best horse of 2008? He wasn't the top dirt horse of the year by any stretch. He is in the conversation for top grass horse though. When combining his grass and dirt races together, he had arguably the best year of any horse in this country when considering all factors. Not just the names of the races won but the consistency in performance and the actual competition faced. Curlin won bigger races than he did but didn't come close to beating horses as accomplished as what Einstein beat during the year. Not close. Consider who Einstein beat:

-in the Gulfstream Turf Hcp. (Dancing Forever, who went on to win the gr1 Manhattan and the gr2 Elkhorn in addition to finishing third in the BC Turf).

-in the Woodford Reserve (Out of Control, a dual gr2 winner last year and 2nd in three gr1 races this year, a nose from winning two of them and Artiste Royal, himself a gr1 winner this year).

-in the Clark. None other than Commentator, who was considered one of the three best dirt males in the country.

-in the Maker's Mark. Although Einstein finished second here, beaten a length by champion Kip Deville, he did beat out subsequent gr1 winner Thorn Song.

If you look at the list of horses that Curlin beat this year, it's not even close to comparable. The best horse he beat this year was Einstein and that wasn't on Einstein's preferred surface. Was there any horse that better combined versatility (winning on both surfaces and at distances from 8-11f) and consistency (three firsts, three seconds in gr1/2 competition) while racing at the top levels of the sport from the beginning of year to the end? My answer is no. Although Einstein won't win a single award this year, I thought it was worth pointing out how good his year really was. If there was an award for most underrated, he'd be a shoe-in.