Posts Tagged ‘godolphin racing’

By Ray Paulick
Eclipse Award voters can be unpredictable when it comes to the outstanding owner category. Since there is no definition for the awards, voters can choose between owners whose stables were deep in talent, winning major races throughout the year; those who piled up wins and purses in lower level races with massive operations; or endearing owners with one big horse.

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Klein in the 1980s, Allen Paulson in the 1990s, and Juddmonte Farms in the current decade represent the stables that competed at the top level with multiple stakes horses. Dan Lasater in the 1970s, John Franks in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and Richard Englander and Mike Gill since 2000 were voted Eclipse Awards by winning a bundle of money and races. Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Firestone (Genuine Risk, 1980), Dotsam Stable (John Henry, 1981), Francis Genter (Unbridled, 1990), Carolyn Hine (Skip Away, 1997), and Lael Stables (Barbaro, 2006) picked up Eclipse Awards as outstanding owner by virtue of one big horse.

The finalists for outstanding owner of 2009 represent two of those three types of stables. Godolphin and Juddmonte were among the leaders in American Graded Stakes victories, while Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss raced Horse of the Year finalist Zenyatta (they also campaigned a Grade 2 and Grade 3 winner).

It’s interesting that the Mosses were finalists as the owners of Zenyatta, but not making the top three in balloting was Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stable, which owns Zenyatta’s chief rival in Horse of the Year voting, Rachel Alexandra, in partnership with Harold McCormick.

Does that suggest Zenyatta is favored to win Horse of the Year over Rachel Alexandra? I don’t think so. In my opinion, the Mosses are more popular among voters than Jackson, who thumbed his nose at the Breeders’ Cup because it was run on a synthetic track at Santa Anita Park. Zenyatta not only ran in the Breeders’ Cup (admittedly it was at her home track), but took on colts in the Classic and became the first filly or mare to win that race. Earlier in the year, however, Jackson took some calculated risks with his star 3-year-old filly, running her against colts on three occasions, including the Woodward against older horses in her eighth and final start of the year.

Voters failed to make Jackson a finalist in 2007 or 2008, either, when Curlin was voted Horse of the Year. Do I see a trend here?
 
Interestingly, Dolphus Morrison, the breeder of Rachel Alexandra, is a finalist in the outstanding breeder category (along with Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs and Juddmonte Farms), despite her being the only American Graded Stakes winner of 2009 that he bred.

I make Rachel Alexandra a slight favorite to win Horse of the Year over Zenyatta.

Based on numbers, Godolphin should be favored to win the outstanding owner Eclipse. Sheikh Mohammed has won one previous outstanding owner award in 2006, sharing it with Lael Stables after they each received 110 votes.

Of course, I would have made IEAH the favorite to win the 2008 outstanding owner Eclipse Award, but Stronach Stable won by a single vote even though IEAH far outpaced Stronach in American Graded Stakes wins.

Godolphin was represented by nine American Graded Stakes winners of 2009, including six Grade 1 winners. Juddmonte had four American Graded Stakes winners, three of which won Grade 1 events. Juddmonte far outpaced Godolphin by money won ($6,525,818 to $3,768,896), finishing second in the money standings behind Mike Gill, who operates a large claiming stable. Juddmonte had 116 starters in 2009 compared with 67 for Godolphin. Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable earned $4,977,513 in purses from 343 starts, so the combination of Godolphin and Darley won $8.7 million.

There is a scenario for the Mosses to win as outstanding owner. Perhaps the voters who cast their ballot for the owner who had the best year winning big races will be divided between Godolphin and Juddmonte. Those who in the past have supported the owners of one big horse may align themselves behind the Mosses.

Stranger things have happened.

By Ray Paulick
Should character and rules violations come into play when votes are cast for honors such as horse racing’s Eclipse Awards or Hall of Fame? My belief is that they should.

That question came to mind yesterday when Daily Racing Form first reported on the lawsuit filed by a bank against Ahmed Zayat, whose Zayat Stables was the leading owner in North America in 2008 by earnings and currently ranks third in that category. The bank alleges Zayat owes more than $34 million on equine-related loans.

Zayat wasn’t even one of the three finalists in 2008 Eclipse Award voting in the outstanding owner category. The award went to Frank Stronach’s Stronach Stables, which edged IEAH Stables by one vote, with Godolphin Racing third.

In light of the lawsuit (which, I need to remind readers, is simply the bank’s allegation and does not tell the other side of the story), it will be interesting to see if Eclipse voters again shun Zayat, whose stable earnings are within $300,000 of the leader, the Juddmonte Farms of Saudi Arabian Prince Khalid Abdullah. Zayat Stables has also had a very good year in American Graded Stakes competition, with six individual American Graded Stakes winners. Only the two entities controlled by Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed have more: Godolphin and Darley have nine AGS winners apiece.

One of Zayat’s biggest stars, Zensational, is a leading contender for champion male sprinter. That begs another question: should a horse be punished by real or perceived misdeeds of his connections? That’s a trickier one to answer.

In Zensational’s case, I don’t thinkan owner’s potential financial problems or character should be a factor in the vote. However, if there are horses trained by individuals who have experienced numerous medication violations (and that isn’t the case with Zensational), I think it’s fair game to bring that into the thought process.

That brings us to Rachel Alexandra, who is a cinch to win the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly and, in my mind, remains the frontrunner for Horse of the Year over the unbeaten Zenyatta. (Full disclosure: I don’t have a vote for Eclipse Awards, but if I did I would vote for Zenyatta over Rachel Alexandra in a very difficult decision.)

Rachel Alexandra is trained by Steve Asmussen, who is fighting a six-month suspension in Texas for a medication violation detected by post-race testing in a horse he trains and that ran at Lone Star Park in 2008 (click here for details). If it was Asmussen’s first violation, I think voters could easily overlook it. But as the Paulick Report disclosed in June 2008, Asmussen has a long list of rules violations over the last 20 years, including a number of medication positives.

Would Asmussen’s lengthy rap sheet be a factor in how I would vote? Yes, it would. Perhaps it would be enough of a factor to tilt the scales in the Rachel Alexandra vs. Zenyatta Horse of the Year vote.

I also believe it’s fair game to look at a trainer’s record of violation when casting a ballot for outstanding trainer. Asmussen won his first Eclipse Award in this category for 2008, and he’s almost certain to repeat this year. But if I had a vote, it would be very difficult for me to cast a ballot in favor of Asmussen over someone like John Shirreffs, the trainer of Zenyatta. In a search of the California Horse Racing Board database, Shirreffs comes up with zero rulings for medication violations.

Character and a track record of following medication rules should matter when we take time to honor the best in Thoroughbred racing.
 

By Ray Paulick
Eclipse Award voters seem to have developed multiple personalities over the years when it comes to their annual selection of the outstanding owner of Thoroughbred racehorses in North America. How else can you explain that the award goes to a one-horse stable some years (Dot-Sam Stable, owner of John Henry in 1981; Carolyn Hine, owner of Skip Away in 1997); to large-scale operations that rack up stakes victories and money (John Franks, 1983-84, 1993-94; Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Klein, 1985-98; Frank Stronach, 1998-2000, 2008; Kenneth and Sarah Ramsay, 2004); and even to massive claiming stables (Richard Englander 2001-02; Michael Gill, 2005)?

When I think of outstanding owners in this game, I think of people like the late Bob Lewis and his wife Beverly, who brought sportsmanship, competitiveness, decency and fun to horse racing, and, just as importantly, competed at the sport’s highest level. Of course, the Lewises were never voted an Eclipse Award as outstanding owner. What an injustice!

The problem with the outstanding owner vote, and other categories in Eclipse Award competition, is that there are no rules. For horses, voters aren’t given guidelines as to whether races outside of North America should be considered, and there is no minimum number of starts required on this continent (as Canada, for example, requires for its Sovereign Awards) to qualify. Thus, we have a number of Eclipse Award champions, fairly or unfairly, who raced overseas throughout the year, and made just one start (usually in a Breeders’ Cup race) before being voted an Eclipse Award. Some voters have a bias against those one-race wonders and will never vote for them. Others may automatically vote a Breeders’ Cup winners as a divisional champion.

Would guidelines in these equine categories help? Perhaps.

But I think they are really needed and long overdue in the outstanding owner competition (along with the other human awards for breeder, trainer, jockey and apprentice jockey), and the time has come for the three groups that present the Eclipse Awards—the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form and National Turf Writers Association—to establish some guidelines to ensure the awards recognize outstanding achievement and excellence in the sport.

How do you measure outstanding achievement and excellence? It’s easy, through the American Graded Stakes program, an objective statistical ranking (Grade 1, 2, 3) of the top 500 races run in the United States. (To keep the Eclipse Awards "North American" and inclusive of Canada, that country’s separate graded stakes program can also be used.) 

Should the award automatically go to the individual with the most graded stakes victories? No. Opportunity (the number of starts or overall size of stable) should be a consideration. Some owners have enjoyed enormous success with a small stable, and they could be overshadowed by a large operation that wins more graded stakes because it has more starters. However, nobody should be given an Eclipse Award for outstanding performance if at least some of those performances didn’t take place at the highest level of the sport.

Simply put, no owner, breeder, trainer, jockey or apprentice jockey should be eligible for an Eclipse Award without winning at least one graded stakes. These are the races that have been used for more than 30 years to rank the top level of the sport. We can argue and debate the merits of some of the grades the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association committee assigns to certain races, but this program has withstood the test of time, and it is now time to put it to use for something as important as the Eclipse Awards.

Along with some Eclipse Award guidelines that require success in graded stakes, the NTRA should distribute to voters detailed information about performance in graded stakes by owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys and apprentice jockeys. That’s one of the reasons the Paulick Report launched this weekly series, American Graded Stakes Standings brought to you by Keeneland. We think it’s important, and I know we are not alone. Our information, while unique, is not complete, and the NTRA should use its association with Equibase to compile more detailed information for voters that includes starts, and 1-2-3 finishes in American Graded Stakes races.

Last year, when Frank Stronach was voted the Eclipse Award as outstanding owner, Bill Finley, writing for espn.com, said the voters “blew it” and “exposed their ignorance” by not giving the award to IEAH stable. His column is worth reading (click here to view it). While not knocking Stronach’s year, Finley pointed out how much better a 2008 IEAH had in graded stakes performances, winning 11 Grade 1 races with eight different horses owned by various partnerships. Stronach won three Grade 1 races with Ginger Punch, the previous year’s champion older filly or mare.

If voting were held today, I’m afraid Michael Gill might get his second Eclipse Award, since he is atop the list of leading owners by money won, which over the years seems to have more influence on voters than any other information they receive in their voting packet.

In my mind, someone like Gill has no business winning an Eclipse Award. While he may be good for the tracks where he runs his claiming horses (he has over 1,800 starts this year, so he makes racing secretaries happy by helping fill races), Gill has not won a single graded stakes race in 2009. In 2005, when he won the Eclipse Award as outstanding owner, Gill won one graded race, the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap with Upateedle. Under my suggested guidelines, he would have qualified that year, but he certainly would not have gotten my vote. (I have not had an Eclipse Award vote since I resigned from the National Turf Writers Association in 2002, but that’s a story for another day).

In 2009, Sheikh Mohammed is the clear leader in American Graded Stakes wins through his Darley Stable (eight winners, 12 AGS wins) and Godolphin Racing (five AGS winners, five wins). But Zayat Stables is also having a good year with six AGS winners that have won 11 AGS races, as is West Point Thoroughbreds (four AGS winners of six races) and George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stable (three AGS winners, eight races).

Let’s hope, if the NTRA and the others who present the Eclipse Awards fail to develop long-overdue guidelines for voters, then the voters will take it upon themselves to do some homework, to look beyond the top of the money-winning chart, and recognize excellence at the highest end of the game. That’s what champions should be about.