My Eclipse Ballot.. (Updated with Winners, Voting)

[FATPIANO]

The 2014 Eclipse Awards finalists, in alphabetical order:

Two-Year-Old Male: American Pharoah
Two-Year-Old Filly: Take Charge Brandi

Three-Year-Old Male: Bayern
Three-Year-Old Filly: Untapable

Older Male: Main Sequence
Older Female: Don’t Tell Sophia

Male Sprinter: Goldencents
Female Sprinter: Judy the Beauty

Male Turf Horse: Main Sequence
Female Turf Horse: Dayatthespa
Steeplechase Horse: Demonstrative

Owner: Ken and Sarah Ramsey
Breeder: Ken and Sarah Ramsey
Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Jockey: Javier Castellano
Apprentice Jockey: Angel Cruz

Horse of the Year: Main Sequence

just my opinion

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by Cardus

I don't see the case for Main Sequence as the Horse of the Year.

If a horse were to win HOTY with a four-race campaign, it should be a dynamic campaign (like Ghostzapper's brief 2005).

Instead, he won his races by a total of one length (1/2, nk, nk, hd). Hardly noteworthy.

I don't get him as HOY either, but the way he wins is not what diminishes the consideration. It is turf racing after all.. They're generally not separated by significant margins to start with. The fact that he beat a high quality International cast in the BC Turf in the same fashion as the more modest types he beat the rest of the year, really answers all questions about him stylistically. He was capable of getting to the wire first no matter the depth and quality of the fields he faced.

To me, the 4 very nice G1 turf efforts just don't measure up to what the 3yo boys and even Untapable did in 2014.

[blackthroatedwind]

That's a good point about Untapable, Steve. She would have been a better candidate.

I love Main Sequence, and am a huge fan of Graham as a trainer, but I would never consider him a legit HOY candidate.

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

That's a good point about Untapable, Steve. She would have been a better candidate.

I love Main Sequence, and am a huge fan of Graham as a trainer, but I would never consider him a legit HOY candidate.

On the HOY ballot, I went Bayern, California Chrome, Untapable. It seems to me that Main Sequence's HOY consideration is being advanced simply out of misplaced animus toward Bayern and Baffert.

[FATPIANO]

Just my opinion, undefeated in four grade 1 races, again undefeated in 4 grade 1 races, can anyone else stake that claim? He was Perfection, plain and simple..

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by FATPIANO

Just my opinion, undefeated in four grade 1 races, again undefeated in 4 grade 1 races, can anyone else stake that claim? He was Perfection, plain and simple..

If a horse was four for four in claiming races that would be perfection too....at least by your standards.

Unless winning photos over Twilight Eclipse ( twice ) and Imagining ( once ) is your idea of HOY type performances?

[FATPIANO]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

If a horse was four for four in claiming races that would be perfection too....at least by your standards.

Unless winning photos over Twilight Eclipse ( twice ) and Imagining ( once ) is your idea of HOY type performances?

lol, I said Undefeated in 4 GRADE 1 Races,including Breeders Cup Turf!!

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by FATPIANO

Just my opinion, undefeated in four grade 1 races, again undefeated in 4 grade 1 races, can anyone else stake that claim? He was Perfection, plain and simple..

Untapable was 4-4 in Grade I races against her own sex.

This idea that Horse of the Year needs to go to undefeated horses has become pervasive and it is just awful in my opinion.

Realistically, it's a silly award that jumped the shark four years ago. A large group of non-betting social media titans seem to choose one horse each year, abandoning reason and projecting their opinion on all others. This year they reject Bayern because A) he had the audacity to lose a few times and B) they accept him as the BCC winner about as much as the Democrats accepted Bush in 2000.

[FATPIANO]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

Untapable was 4-4 in Grade I races against her own sex.

This idea that Horse of the Year needs to go to undefeated horses has become pervasive and it is just awful in my opinion.

Realistically, it's a silly award that jumped the shark four years ago. A large group of non-betting social media titans seem to choose one horse each year, abandoning reason and projecting their opinion on all others. This year they reject Bayern because A) he had the audacity to lose a few times and B) they accept him as the BCC winner about as much as the Democrats accepted Bush in 2000.

PS: my second choise IS BAYERN

[_ed_]

Steve Haskin raises an interesting point in his latest Bloodhorse column - Flaxman Holdings unlucky to be shut out of the breeder/owner categories?