No deserving winner of the Eclipse Award at end of a racing year so far
The Horse of the Year holds an uncertainty of another level this year, with a lot of half hearted contenders there isn’t a clear cut winner this time around. It’s probably one of those rarest occasions when the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner isn’t even part
of the conversation, before 2011 its been happening for the past three years.
Drosselmeyer may even not make it to the top three contenders for the Eclipse Award this year. However, there are multiple stakes winners a plenty who will be receiving votes.
The likes of Acclamation, Game on Dude, Flat Out and Tizway had gone on to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic then they would have sealed their fate as the Horse of the Year for the year 2011,but it is not to be, thus, the uncertainty of a different kind this
year.
Instead, the Bob Baffert trained Game on Dude despite leading the Classic pack for a good period of the race couldn’t match strides with the fast approaching Drosselmeyer.
Flat Out wasn’t even in contention from start to wire, Tizway and Acclamation with a brilliant season couldn’t top it off with a Breeders’ Cup Classic win because they both were sidelined due to injuries.
Havre de Grace winning against the males in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes could’ve made the job easier if she had gone on to repeat the performance in the Classic.
Uncle Mo was another contender, despite of losing a good chunk of the season due to a rare liver disease, his come back to the races was more than impressive with a second place finish in the King’s Bishop Stakes where he got narrowly nosed out by Caleb’s
Posse in the final strides and then at Belmont wrapped up the Kelso Handicap with an impressive run.
Mike Repole owned and Todd Pletcher trained competed well but wilted to finish tenth in the Classic.
With that said, winning the Classic has never given a surety to runners and their connections that they will ultimately win the Eclipse Award at the end of the year, but no one so far has proven to be the best this season and remains to be seen who gets
the favour in the end to become the 2011 Horse of the Year.
Tags: