Who Is Horse Of The Year?

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by 10 pnt move up

agree, thats why when it comes to Eclipse voting over the years there have been some very curious results with west coast horses.

Agreed. A recent one was the 2004 sprint eclipse where Speightstown won over Pico Central. Pico Central won the vosburgh, carter and Met mile and finished 3rd in the cigar after a long year shipping back and forth. In their lone meeting, Pico Central blew speightstown's doors off in the Vosburgh. Yet, speightstown was named champion sprinter. The rationale at the time? Speightstown showed up on BC day.

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

Agreed. A recent one was the 2004 sprint eclipse where Speightstown won over Pico Central. Pico Central won the vosburgh, carter and Met mile and finished 3rd in the cigar after a long year shipping back and forth. In their lone meeting, Pico Central blew speightstown's doors off in the Vosburgh. Yet, speightstown was named champion sprinter. The rationale at the time? Speightstown showed up on BC day.

Well, sadly, I'm sure some voters view the Vosburgh as some sort of BC "prep" race, the way they would a Derby prep.

In the BC Sprint itself, Speighstown won well clear of runner-up Kela, who sure enough, defeated Pico Central in the Pat O'Brien at Del Mar.

The loss in the Cigar Mile was probably the nail in the coffin.

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Well, sadly, I'm sure some voters view the Vosburgh as some sort of BC "prep" race, the way they would a Derby prep.

In the BC Sprint itself, Speighstown won well clear of runner-up Kela, who sure enough, defeated Pico Central in the Pat O'Brien at Del Mar.

The loss in the Cigar Mile was probably the nail in the coffin.

I hear you. But speightstown's BC victory was his lone grade 1 all year long. Regardless of how the voters viewed the vosburgh, the race really wasnt close and it was at a distance Speightstown was supposed to be better at.

If you took the body of work over the course of a season, it wasnt even close. Pico took victories in Belmont's two biggest sprints of the year and finished a respectable first and third at the big A. Pico roasted Speightstown in their only head to head. How does Speightstown get that award IF you are judging the winner based on what happened over the course of an entire year?

[brockguy]

In my view, HOY should be based on the best horse who raced in North America in that year (thats why like KG has said before, I would have liked Ghostzapper to have gotten it off one run in May of 2005). The best assembled horse race of the year was the Classic and Zenyatta won it very very cosily. That was the performance of the year! She deserves the accolade and thats why I voted for her. However, if there was a year for Co-HOYs, this is it. Rachel had a smashing year..

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by brockguy

In my view, HOY should be based on the best horse who raced in North America in that year.

Whatever. That kind of thinking apparently got King Glorious kicked outta here.

"Best assembled"? The BC Classic was nothing more than what would have happened if Derek Jeter, Corey Nakatani, Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, Kobe Byrant, David Beckham, Tom Brady, and Susan Boyle got to together and had a singing competition.

[Smooth Operator]

Z





Nuff said