Who wins Horse of the Year?

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

I agree on Drosselmeyer.

I think it comes down to Havre De Grace or Drosselmeyer. Drosselmeyer won the big one and came in second in the JCGC. In horse racing circa 2011, that is a decent resume.

I would understand if they gave it to the mare. Anyone else, I have a hard time seeing. I realize Game On Dude won a couple of awful stakes in So Cal but he lost to Drosselmeyer head to head. At least HDG beat a couple of compelling opponents in her prior stakes races.

If Game On Dude lost to Drosselmeyer head to head, what do you call how HDG finished in comparison? That's the problem. She wasn't disgraced, but giving the 4th place finisher of the Classic HOY? If she finished where Game On Dude finished (it's hard to abbreviate his name without it looking like you're shouting 'God'), it'd be close enough that folks might go for it a la Curlin and his BCC 3rd place. In his case though, he was trying synthetic and you could see the rest of his record as more than sufficient what with winning the Dubai World Cup. For all the 'ooh'ing over HDG's Woodward, a nice performance indeed, Rachel was a second faster and pushed from start to finish on the lead by every single horse in the field.

If HDG won it, I wouldn't cry myself to sleep because I have a lot of respect for her. It'd bug me less than last year's situation, honestly, but HOY shouldn't be like this. It's frustrating.