NEWS
Horse of The Year commentary: It’s Time for Some Criteria
Posted: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 3:23 PM
BREEDERS' CUP CLASSIC
photos by Z/Thoroughbred Times
by Todd Lieber
The suspense is over. Zenyatta is Horse of The Year for 2010, an honor she richly deserves.
But let’s be honest: Blame deserved it, too, and in another year, against any other rival, he most likely would have won. This has to leave his supporters feeling not only disappointed but also a bit frustrated with the result, as is evident in comments from trainer Al Stall.
“[Blame] could have won every race he ran in, but I’m not sure that would have made any difference anyway,” he said.
Zenyatta’s supporters felt the same way about the 2009 award, which champion three-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra received. The problem isn’t with who won. The problem is that we really don’t know why she won.
This is because each Eclipse voter casts a ballot according to not only his or her judgment but also his or her own choice of criteria. In the weeks and months leading up to this year’s award ceremony, supporters of each horse presented a host of reasons why their candidate deserved the award more than the other, reasons that were based on widely divergent criteria.
Some voters may have decided based on the head-to-head matchup or the fact that Blame’s victory over Zenyatta came on racing’s biggest day in what is arguably the most important race. Others might have looked to the two horses’ respective earnings for the year or to what Stall called Blame’s superior “strength of schedule.” Still others may have recognized Zenyatta’s five Grade 1 victories, her long unbeaten streak, the way she engaged the public and brought attention to the sport throughout her career, and perhaps even her (perceived) slight in the 2009 voting. Others may have wanted to consider the number of tracks and the types of surfaces on which each horse ran.
The absence of guidelines makes the Horse of The Year award more akin to awards in the entertainment arts, such as the Oscars or Grammys, than to awards in other sports such as Major League Baseball’s Most Valuable Player Award. In the absence of clear guidelines, entertainment honors often seem to be awarded for what might broadly be called “political” reasons: having the right connections within the industry or a history of long-term contributions or as an attempt to capitalize on a “hot” artist’s current popularity. This potentially cheapens the award. The aforementioned MVP, on the other hand, is given for one clear reason: the winner is judged to have made the most valuable contribution to his team’s success during the season. Fans might disagree with the voters’ choice, but the reasoning behind the award is never suspect.
Judging by the results of the voting, in every “horse” category this year except Horse of The Year, there was one clear, nearly unanimous, winner. Perhaps in most years this is true also of “Horse of The Year.” In such instances, voting based on intuitive, inexplicit, and personal criteria may be sufficient, but as the experience of the last two years shows, the overall integrity of the award would be better served if the Eclipse Awards established clear criteria on which voters should decide.
It would be up to others with far more knowledge and greater standing in the industry than this correspondent to determine what those criteria should be, but since I’ve raised the issue I will at least hazard a suggestion. The honor should go to the horse with the most consistent record of achievement at the highest level of racing during the year. To be sure, this will not stifle debate, but it would at least focus the questions.
Were Zenyatta’s five Grade 1 victories a greater achievement than Blame’s three, even though Blame’s were against arguably tougher competition? Was Zenyatta’s furious late rally in the Breeders Cup Classic after being nearly left at the gate a greater accomplishment than Blame’s stubborn refusal to be passed?
The discussions will go on. But next year, when we find out who the voters selected for 2011 Horse of The Year, we would at least know why.
Todd Lieber is an Iowa-based correspondent of Thoroughbred Times
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: vegasvixen, Las Vegas, NV on February 22, 2011 at 10:19 PM
Having Zenyatta as HOY is a cruel joke. She has no outstanding credentials (Pepper's Pride won 19 consecutive races in Dec 2008), no powerful races in 2010 nor 2009. Why would anyone who knows anything about horseracing even consider her a viable nominee for HOY? It is obvious there are no criteria for HOY since she has none.
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Posted by: afleetalexforever, little rock, AR on January 21, 2011 at 04:26 PM
This is not about the horse as I’ve been called a hater over and over again, it was about her COWARDconnections campaigning her as if she needed to prove that she could beat allowance quality fillies with 0/14 and 1/16 lifetime records over and over again to prove her greatness. Then the eclipse award voters, going only on sentiment and not looking at what happened from jan1-dec 31. But its over now and we should move on, the * can now be raised on her 2 breeders cup wins and the * will or should be placed over this award in 2010, the * being for a HOY awarded or literally given to the most undeserved connections for the most lackluster campaign in the history of the Eclipse awards, talk about a black eye on the sport. a real travesty that the horse that held her off in the final race, the last hoorah, the moss's home run race again doesnt get the deserved respect because he finished in front of this allowance beater. Jerry Moss has ruined horse racing for a number of people and the ignorant eclipse award voters rewarded him for CAMPAIGNING A GOOD HORSE OVER A MEDIOCRE CAREER, beating optional claimers. Just remember this head to head Curlin, Rachel and Blame won when it counted, at the end of her career when no one else cared, she finally got her due. Wow, it leaves you speechless.
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Posted by: afleetalexforever, little rock, AR on January 21, 2011 at 04:25 PM
People loved Smarty Jones but Ghostzapper went on to win the HOY award, it hurt at the time but it was legit, had Smarty won it wouldn’t have been right other than the fact that he was more popular and the household name. Smarty Jones was 1000 times more popular than Zenyatta, he raced in from of 100k on 3 different occasions, she can never claim this, he defeated more Grade 1 winners in 3 races compared to Zenyattas who allowance quality 20 race career. There is not one horse on Smarty's resume with a 0 win career record, in 2010 alone Zenyatta faced 8 horses that have never won a race in their career. Is this how greatness is defined nowadays, ducking a three year old filly in 2009 all year long and then begging for the owner to bring his horse out to an invalidated track to run on rubber and buggers. In 2010 ducking every race of consequence including the top 4 races at her own home track. We have lowered the standard so far that I expect uncle mo to win the HOY next year with 2 G3 starts, 3 g2 starts and a 5th place finish in the Classic. what irks me though is not that she won, the horse won the award by doing what her owners asked of her (albeit very little, less than any HOY in the history of the award) but it’s the fact that these writers (idiots that they are, and her obsessive Cult like fans) are not willing to come out and say, yes I voted for her, or whe won only due to her popularity, her dance, her 19/20 lifetime record and the fact that she is a special horse. If that were the case it would be fine, but in anyway to try to talk about what occurred on the track, which as is stated, she ran in 5 prep races to get ready for the BCClassic, but whats sad is her career is about 7 prep races in 08, 4 prep races in 09 and 5 prep races in 2010, her career revolved around 3 races, and she only won 2/3.
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Posted by: Bridget, Johnson City, NY on January 21, 2011 at 01:20 PM
Some of you have said Blame was the better horse last year. Just wanted to point out this one feat of Zenyatta's which was not mentioned before, so I'll mention it here: On August 7, 2010, Zenyatta broke the world record (set by Rock of Gibraltar) for consecutive (8) Grade/Group I victories, when she finished 1st at the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap in Del Mar, CA
These races are not trailer trash as some would like to think. What other horse came from behind in all their races to a deciding win? Blame's accomplishments were very good, but based on how Zenyatta ran and the type races she won (G1s)in 2010, how could we NOT give her Horse of the Year? How could we not give it to her yet another year when she was clearly deserving of it the past two years also?
Yes, there should be better criteria based on a points system, I agree. The subjectivity does add something to it, though. But to say Blame was the better horse, I'll have to strongly disagree.
Whoever wrote that her award was based on popularity is strongly mistaken. It was based on her strong spirit coming from behind in all her races(what other horse has done that consistently?), her speed and the level of races won, period. All the other things were secondary and icing on the cake.
If Blame's connections wanted him to win HOY, then why didn't they race him for another year when he clearly had much more in him to do so?
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Posted by: Lori, Urban, FL on January 21, 2011 at 11:29 AM
Zenyatta deserved that award. First of all, Blame's only loss of the year was worse than Zenyatta getting to the wire an inch and a half short. Blame lost to a glorified sprinter. Zenyatta came up a nose short of blowing by the laboring, desperate for the wire Blame. If Blame would have blown Zenyatta away by daylight, then I could see him getting it. If was a great horse Zenyatta would have never been able to gain any ground on him at all. He's a grinder that held on for dear life and I'd like to see him come back and do it again---if he's so grat. I'd like to see him take on Zenyatta on a synthetic surface because Blame would not even get close to her. She araced on a surface she really does not excel on and look how Blame was life and death for the wire. No way, Zenyatta is much better than Blame in every respect and ONE RACE DOES NOT DECIDE ANYTHING. That is my biggest beef with the Breeders Cup...one race should not decide the Horse of the Year. Bring back the Marlboro Cup, the Woodward and the Jockey Club Gold Cup at 2 miles---let's see who the real champion is. Could you imagine Blame and Zenyatta racing each other at the old classic distance of 2 miles---it would not even be a race. They need a calendar to time Blame long after Zenyatta crossed the wire. Where was Blame last year in the Breeders Cup.?????? Perhaps his connections were concerned about the synthetic surface and were concerned about losing...Zenyatta's connections took it to them and because of Mike Smith's horrible ride the best horse came up an inch and a half short. Where were the other males runners in that race who are supposed to be specialists on the real dirt---they were so far behind the first two finishers, it's an embarrasment. Blame is the best older colt or geilding and that's about it. BTW, Where is Blame now---to cooked from that last race to even consider a comeback..he's no Horse of the Year...Zenyatta is.
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