NEWS
Racing season needs timely closure
Posted: Saturday, November 24, 2001
Inquiring minds would like to know who the champions are now, not three months from now
Now would be a great time to conduct the Eclipse Awards voting. The season is fresh in everyone's mind, there is a lively debate about Horse of the Year, and a number of divisions appear to be close contests. It would be a great time to announce the Eclipse Awards winners of 2001. Now is the right time to bring closure to the current racing season, not in mid-February. After all, the season is over, isn't it?
Well, no, not according to the Thoroughbred racing calendar. Thoroughbred racing apparently employs a 14-month calendar, which begins in January of one year and runs through February of the following year. It is a season that has no definitive starting point, and its end date comes at a time when few people-particularly racing fans-care (or probably remember) what happened the previous year. By February, the buzz is already out on the Triple Crown season.
Before this year's Eclipse Awards ceremony is held on February 18, the 2002 season will already be well under way. Such races as the Donn Handicap (G1), San Antonio Handicap (G2), and Strub Stakes (G1) already will have been contested.
On January 13, Tiznow won the San Fernando Breeders' Cup Stakes (G2) in his first start of 2001. Unbeknownst to everyone in racing, he was actually the 2000 Horse of the Year. We just did not know that officially until 2 1/2 weeks later, when the Eclipse Awards ceremony was held in New Orleans on January 30, although most voters and fans made up their minds after his courageous victory in the 2000 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1).
This long, drawn-out process for announcing racing's champions is counterintuitive to what everyone acknowledges as the racing season. The long delay also minimizes the accomplishments of the horses and people who earn Eclipse Awards because they are not recognized in a timely manner. By the time the awards are announced, fans collectively shrug, "So what?"
For all intents and purposes, practical or otherwise, the racing season ends on Breeders' Cup day. That was October 27. Anything that happens afterward should not have an effect on divisional championships. While tracks that hold graded stakes races would like to believe their races have meaning in year-end championships, they do not. And they should not. The racing season is set up to conclude with the World Thoroughbred Championships. Maybe the National Thoroughbred Racing Association needs to rename it the WORLD THOROUGHBRED CHAMPIONSHIPS to get everyone's attention. Putting "We really mean it" as its subtitle may also help.
The long delay between the end of the season and the announcement of champions is unique to Thoroughbred racing.
For example, in baseball, the Most Valuable Player awards, Golden Glove Award winners, Cy Young Award winners, and managers of the year are voted on immediately after the regular season ends. (They do not include playoffs because not all players participate in those games.) The awards are announced in November. Baseball does not wait until the middle of January, right before the start of spring training, to announce its best of the previous year.
In college football, the last bowl game of the 2001 season will be played on January 3, 2002. The voters will not wait until March 1 to cast their ballots on which team was the best in the country and then wait until April 18 to announce the results. The vote will be taken on January 4 and the results will be announced on January 5.
At least one group gets it right in racing. On November 14, the Cartier Awards winners were announced, honoring the best racehorses in Europe for this year. That is as it should be. The flat season in Europe effectively ends with the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1) on the first Sunday in October, with some of the best racehorses in Europe coming over to the United States for the Breeders' Cup. The Cartier Awards were announced just 2 1/2 weeks after the Breeders' Cup.
Surely with all the technology we have available today, we can vote for and announce our champions in a timelier manner.
It is time to change the procedures for selecting and announcing the Eclipse Awards winners. Voting should take place immediately after the Breeders' Cup and the awards ceremony should be held during the first or second week of December.
Few people care about such things in February.
Mark Simon is Editor of Thoroughbred Times.
