2013 Eclipse Finalists

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by helicopter11

In either case the finalists are not picked randomly. Mike Smith had a stellar year regardless.

they're picked randomly in that you never know what the various voters are thinking...or what they know, how closely they followed racing all year. there have been some interesting picks to show as finalists over the years.

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by Danzig

they're picked randomly in that you never know what the various voters are thinking...or what they know, how closely they followed racing all year. there have been some interesting picks to show as finalists over the years.

How closely the voters were following racing all year is clearly reflected in the utter embarrassment that Authenticity failed to appear on enough ballots to finish as a finalist. Because her PP's were mistakenly omitted from the Older Fillies & Mares stats, oblivious ballots didn't include her. As Jay Privman said last week on ATR, it's a litmus test on who takes the process seriously.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Kasept

How closely the voters were following racing all year is clearly reflected in the utter embarrassment that Authenticity failed to appear on enough ballots to finish as a finalist. Because her PP's were mistakenly omitted from the Older Fillies & Mares stats, oblivious ballots didn't include her. As Jay Privman said last week on ATR, it's a litmus test on who takes the process seriously.

exactly the kind of stuff i'm talking about. if people don't know what they're doing, they should toss their ballot rather than do something stupid out of ignorance.

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by Kasept

How closely the voters were following racing all year is clearly reflected in the utter embarrassment that Authenticity failed to appear on enough ballots to finish as a finalist. Because her PP's were mistakenly omitted from the Older Fillies & Mares stats, oblivious ballots didn't include her. As Jay Privman said last week on ATR, it's a litmus test on who takes the process seriously.

Not saying Authenticity didn't deserve to be on the ballot (consistency of quality ought to be acknowledged and her level and volume of races at that level are more than clear with not only graded wins but regular G1 appearances and placings against horses like Beholder), but people argue Honor Code shouldn't be a nomineee because he didn't win a G1 in 2013, so could they have conceivably been so stuck on that G1 winning achievement that they just went 'didn't win a G1, not gonna vote for her'? Maybe they did think of her despite the lack of PPs and didn't take the process seriously in a different way than you thought.

[Kasept]

There isn't a 'ballot'. The NTRA/NTWBA/DRF assembles a Past Performance booklet that has 'candidates' by division. Authenticity, Streaming and some others were left out of it in a case of apparent omissions. As for 'not a G1 winner', Funny Proposition managed to be included in the group of suggested Older Filly & Mare considerations but the winner of $830k between Jan-Nov wasn't.

Simply put, it's an embarrassment.

[freddymo]

Originally Posted by Kasept

There isn't a 'ballot'. The NTRA/NTWBA/DRF assembles a Past Performance booklet that has 'candidates' by division. Authenticity, Streaming and some others were left out of it in a case of apparent omissions. As for 'not a G1 winner', Funny Proposition managed to be included in the group of suggested Older Filly & Mare considerations but the winner of $830k between Jan-Nov wasn't.

Simply put, it's an embarrassment.

She wasn't a likely or worthy winner of award... Basically she was Satished

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by freddymo

She wasn't a likely or worthy winner of award... Basically she was Satished

No one suggested she was going to be the winner of the award. She was simply the clear 2nd best Older Filly & Mare of 2013 and deserved to be recognized as such as an Eclipse finalist behind division winner Royal Delta. The mechanism involved in 'assisting' voters was slapdash and poorly executed. There wasn't anyone at the 3 organizations that acutely omitted Authenticity, but it doesn't diminish what a farce the resultant outcome is due to laziness of voters.

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by Kasept

There isn't a 'ballot'. The NTRA/NTWBA/DRF assembles a Past Performance booklet that has 'candidates' by division. Authenticity, Streaming and some others were left out of it in a case of apparent omissions. As for 'not a G1 winner', Funny Proposition managed to be included in the group of suggested Older Filly & Mare considerations but the winner of $830k between Jan-Nov wasn't.

Simply put, it's an embarrassment.

Ah ok then that's just stupid. They effectively create a short list for nomination when they send this out. If they can do points systems for the Derby and Win and You're In for the Breeders' Cup, surely there could be some reasonable threshold where they can say 'if you do X, Y, or Z your PPs end up in the booklet.' That takes out any opportunity for this level of facepalmery.

[Danzig]

you would have to think, tho, that if you're asking racing people to vote, that you wouldn't have to send out info. if they follow so little of it as to require assistance in knowing who did what, why do they have a vote?

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Danzig

you would have to think, tho, that if you're asking racing people to vote, that you wouldn't have to send out info. if they follow so little of it as to require assistance in knowing who did what, why do they have a vote?

Absolutely.