2017 Eclipse Award Ballot & Discussion

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Voters struggle with the human categories. I'm not sure why Asmussen is a nominee for Trainer, as ex-Gun Runner, he didn't have a particularly good year. I guess, however, assuming he finishes third, there are worse choices to fill out the category. I assume the voters will get it right with Chad Brown and Jose Ortiz, both of whom should be runaway winners.

Don't even get me started about the owner nominees. Klaravich and E-Five Racing both were better choices than at least two of the nominees in my opinion.

As Andy mentions, the voters seem to really struggle with any imaginative comprehension past the obvious earnings lists. It's an embarrassment and indicative of people that aren't really following the game, are too lazy to work beneath the surface figures and don't particularly care about properly recognizing the stakeholders.

To tackle breeder for a moment, Besilu is not in the sport anymore and accrued it's numbers almost entirely via the exploits of Gun Runner. WinStar, a commercial breeding factory, had Bolt d'Oro, New Money Honey and American Patriot as their headliners in what was obviously a sub-par year. From 226 WinStar products that made starts in 2017, there were 9 Graded Stake wins (4 G1's).

By comparison, Live Oak Stud (Mrs. Weber) homebred 4 different Graded Stakes winners that won 8 stakes (3 G1's). That came from just 46 horses that started in '17. You say earnings are your priority? OK.. Live Oak runners earned $15,524 per start v. WinStar's $6,948.

Mrs. Weber will have a Champion in World Approval and some might say that's a nice acknowledgement of her season. But in fact, 2017 was one of the best years she's had in 50 years in the game and this was an ideal opportunity for anyone paying attention to reward her with a Breeder ~ or Owner ~ Eclipse for decades of service to the sport. A reward she would greatly cherish.

As Andy noted too, the failure the past 2 years to take notice of Seth Klarman & Bill Lawrence is equally inexcusable.

It's all very irksome to anyone that takes their involvement in the industry seriously.

[blackthroatedwind]

For better or worse, the Eclipse Awards do not take a broad view of the accomplishments of the entrants. They focus on the one entry. For some relatively obvious reasons, I have issues with this, but at the same time, I also understand it. I think it works in many cases but has drawbacks in others. Like many here, I would love to see Steve recognized for his contributions to the Industry, but as of yet the Industry has failed to do that. Hopefully that will change at some point. I am confident that it will.