There's no stars in racing? Is that right?

[The Indomitable DrugS]

There's always going to be stars because someone has to win the races.

In some years the stars won't be very good in relation to the stars of other years.

In 1997, Skip Away ran 9 Beyers of 115 or greater - and capped off his year with a 6 length Breeders Cup Classic win with a 120 Beyer. He was defeated in the vote for Horse of the Year by Favorite Trick.

Skip Away was punished in the voting because he, Formal Gold, Will's Way, and Gentleman were taking turns beating each other in what possibly was the all-time deepest handicap division I've seen in my time.

Favorite Trick dominated his division by beating laughing stock competiton like Dawson's Legacy and Nationalore in the BC Juvie. Time Limit and Laydown in the Breeders Futurity. KO Punch and Jess M in the Hopeful. Case Dismissed in the Saratoga Special. Double Honor in the Bashford Manor.

Basically, the older male division was Adriana Lima, Gisele Bundchen, Karolina Kurkova, Heidy Klum etc. The 2yo male division was some pretty girl hanging out at Camp Fat.

Curlin goes his entire career and only runs one lifetime Beyer of 115 or better - yet he wins 2 horse of the year titles. Skip Away does it 9 times in a year and only wins about a third of his races that year.

Look at a horse like Einstein .. he's run 25 times, made over $2.6 million, and his career best Beyer is a 106. Distorted Humor ran just 5 times in 1997, his average Beyer was 111.00 - and he was only good enough to win 1 of those 5 races...the lone win coming in the prestegious Doug Salvatore Mile at Monmouth.

A lot of these divisional stars running now might be stars ... but they're really low rated stars compared to stars of past years. Obviously you have some big exceptions ... 'sup Rachel Alexandra. And hey, if Favorite Trick deserves a horse of the year title over Skip Away ... Rachel Alexandra deserves a nod over Ruffian.