AND THE WINNER IS …
By Ray Paulick
Just down the road from the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire Hotel, site of tonight’s Eclipse Awards dinner, is beautiful downtown Burbank and the world-famous studio where the “Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” was produced for many wonderful years after Carson and his entourage moved West from New York City. (I’ll bet NBC executives wish Johnny were still around today, given the problems the network is currently experiencing with the “Tonight Show” franchise.)
One of the most famous “Tonight Show” characters was Carnac the Magnificent, the all-knowing soothsayer and divine psychic who provided answers to questions contained in “hermetically sealed envelopes kept in a mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnalls porch since noon that day.”
I’m no Carnac, and I’m far from magnificent, but I do know where Funk & Wagnalls live. So, after peering into the mayonnaise jar, here are my fearless predictions for tonight’s Eclipse Awards:
Just down the road from the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire Hotel, site of tonight’s Eclipse Awards dinner, is beautiful downtown Burbank and the world-famous studio where the “Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” was produced for many wonderful years after Carson and his entourage moved West from New York City. (I’ll bet NBC executives wish Johnny were still around today, given the problems the network is currently experiencing with the “Tonight Show” franchise.)
One of the most famous “Tonight Show” characters was Carnac the Magnificent, the all-knowing soothsayer and divine psychic who provided answers to questions contained in “hermetically sealed envelopes kept in a mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnalls porch since noon that day.”
I’m no Carnac, and I’m far from magnificent, but I do know where Funk & Wagnalls live. So, after peering into the mayonnaise jar, here are my fearless predictions for tonight’s Eclipse Awards:
SLAM-DUNK WINNERS
- Lookin At Lucky, 2-year-old male
- Lookin At Lucky, 2-year-old male
- Summer Bird, 3-year-old male
- Rachel Alexandra, 3-year-old female
- Zenyatta, older female
- Informed Decision, female sprinter
- Gio Ponti, turf male
- Goldikova, turf female
- Mixed Up, steeplechase
- Steve Asmussen, outstanding trainer
I suppose it’s a bit of a risk to say that Gio Ponti is a slam dunk in the male turf category, given the fact the defending champion and two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Conduit will get considerable support, especially from those who voted for Gio Ponti in the wide-open older male (all surfaces) category. But I think Gio Ponti’s four Grade 1 victories at Santa Anita, Arlington and Belmont Park will get him the necessary votes to defeat Conduit.
PRETTY, KINDA SURE WINNERS
PRETTY, KINDA SURE WINNERS
- She Be Wild, 2-year-old female
- Kodiak Kowboy, male sprinter
- Juddmonte Farms, breeder
- Kodiak Kowboy, male sprinter
- Juddmonte Farms, breeder
I think the best performance of 2009 by a 2-year-old of either sex came from Blind Luck in her explosive victory in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes on Dec. 20, but the National Thoroughbred Racing Association staff was in such a rush to start their Christmas holiday they didn’t include this race (or the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity for colts) in the past performances distributed in the mail to voters. Too bad. Blind Luck had previously finished third after a troubled trip in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, beaten three-quarters of a length by the likely champion, the once-beaten She Be Wild.
Kodiak Kowboy and Zensational each won three Grade 1 races in 2009, though two factors are going against Zensational: 1) the suspicion is that he beat up on the same horses in all three races; and 2) he was not really a factor in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, his biggest test of the year. Kodiak Kowboy was forced to miss the Sprint after getting sick before the race, but he bounced back with a strong win in the Cigar Mile Handicap later in November. But is a one-turn mile really a sprint?
I’m going against my best judgment in picking Juddmonte, since it is the most deserving candidate among the three finalists as outstanding breeder. Voters usually don’t get this one right, but I’m counting on this year being an aberration.
TOSS-UP CATEGORIES
- Gio Ponti, older male
- Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss, outstanding owner
- Ramon Dominguez, outstanding jockey
- Luis Saez, outstanding apprentice jockey
Where is Carnac when I need him?
Eclipse Award voters don’t like giving the older male championship to turf horses or sprinters, but I think the addition of synthetic surfaces over the last few years has blurred the distinction somewhat. Gio Ponti clearly had the best year of the three finalists (Einstein and Kodiak Kowboy are the others), but I think he is still thought of as a turf horse, so there is a built-in resistance against him by some voters. But Einstein’s two victories were turf and synthetics, so he’s not a “dirt” horse, either, and Kodiak Kowboy’s wins were all at a mile or less. If there was ever a year to not give out the award in this division, this might be it.
I’ve written about the split personality that Eclipse Award voters have shown in the outstanding owner category, sometimes giving the award to the owner with the most wins and money won and occasionally to the owner with one “big horse.” There is no definition. In my opinion, the outstanding owner of 2009 was the Godolphin/Darley entity of Sheikh Mohammed, but I think I’m in the minority here, and voters are likely to go with the feel-good story of the year and support Zenyatta’s owners, Jerry and Ann Moss.
Handicapping the jockey race is more about handicapping the voters. New Yorkers and East Coasters will vote en masse for Ramon Dominguez, Midwesterners for Julien Leparoux and Californians for Garrett Gomez. Any of the three are deserving, but I’ll give the slight edge to Dominguez. On the apprentice front, I don’t have a clue, and the information provided voters is so useless there should be consideration given to eliminating this category.
AND FINALLY, HORSE OF THE YEAR GOES TO …
Kodiak Kowboy and Zensational each won three Grade 1 races in 2009, though two factors are going against Zensational: 1) the suspicion is that he beat up on the same horses in all three races; and 2) he was not really a factor in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, his biggest test of the year. Kodiak Kowboy was forced to miss the Sprint after getting sick before the race, but he bounced back with a strong win in the Cigar Mile Handicap later in November. But is a one-turn mile really a sprint?
I’m going against my best judgment in picking Juddmonte, since it is the most deserving candidate among the three finalists as outstanding breeder. Voters usually don’t get this one right, but I’m counting on this year being an aberration.
TOSS-UP CATEGORIES
- Gio Ponti, older male
- Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss, outstanding owner
- Ramon Dominguez, outstanding jockey
- Luis Saez, outstanding apprentice jockey
Where is Carnac when I need him?
Eclipse Award voters don’t like giving the older male championship to turf horses or sprinters, but I think the addition of synthetic surfaces over the last few years has blurred the distinction somewhat. Gio Ponti clearly had the best year of the three finalists (Einstein and Kodiak Kowboy are the others), but I think he is still thought of as a turf horse, so there is a built-in resistance against him by some voters. But Einstein’s two victories were turf and synthetics, so he’s not a “dirt” horse, either, and Kodiak Kowboy’s wins were all at a mile or less. If there was ever a year to not give out the award in this division, this might be it.
I’ve written about the split personality that Eclipse Award voters have shown in the outstanding owner category, sometimes giving the award to the owner with the most wins and money won and occasionally to the owner with one “big horse.” There is no definition. In my opinion, the outstanding owner of 2009 was the Godolphin/Darley entity of Sheikh Mohammed, but I think I’m in the minority here, and voters are likely to go with the feel-good story of the year and support Zenyatta’s owners, Jerry and Ann Moss.
Handicapping the jockey race is more about handicapping the voters. New Yorkers and East Coasters will vote en masse for Ramon Dominguez, Midwesterners for Julien Leparoux and Californians for Garrett Gomez. Any of the three are deserving, but I’ll give the slight edge to Dominguez. On the apprentice front, I don’t have a clue, and the information provided voters is so useless there should be consideration given to eliminating this category.
AND FINALLY, HORSE OF THE YEAR GOES TO …
People who are looking for brevity in the Horse of the Year acceptance speech are pulling for Zenyatta and the Mosses. Jess Jackson can be expected to give his “state of the industry” speech if Rachel Alexandra wins, and no one there will have the nerve to give him the hook after 10 minutes of lecturing us on what we need to do to turn things around. (But, hey, someone struck up the band when Frank Sinatra went on for too long when getting a lifetime achievement award at the Grammy’s one year, so there’s always hope!)
But back to the issue at hand. Rachel Alexandra will win Horse of the Year because of her historic campaign that had her beating members of her own age and sex by a furlong; taking the Preakness over the Kentucky Derby winner; taking the Haskell Invitational over the Belmont and eventual Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner; and beating older horses in the Woodward. It was a remarkable campaign. I don’t think the vote will be that close, either.
My vote would have gone to Zenyatta, however, despite everything Rachel Alexandra did. I believe in the Breeders’ Cup being the most definitive event in determining champions, and think that what Zenyatta did in beating a world-class field of males at a mile and a quarter in the Classic trumps Rachel Alexandra – barely.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the 2010 Horse of the Year title is settled on the racetrack.
I hope you’ll check back tonight, for my live blog of the Eclipse Awards telecast from Beverly Hills. If you decide not to, as Carnac would say: “May the fleas of a thousand camels nest in your shorts.”
But back to the issue at hand. Rachel Alexandra will win Horse of the Year because of her historic campaign that had her beating members of her own age and sex by a furlong; taking the Preakness over the Kentucky Derby winner; taking the Haskell Invitational over the Belmont and eventual Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner; and beating older horses in the Woodward. It was a remarkable campaign. I don’t think the vote will be that close, either.
My vote would have gone to Zenyatta, however, despite everything Rachel Alexandra did. I believe in the Breeders’ Cup being the most definitive event in determining champions, and think that what Zenyatta did in beating a world-class field of males at a mile and a quarter in the Classic trumps Rachel Alexandra – barely.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the 2010 Horse of the Year title is settled on the racetrack.
I hope you’ll check back tonight, for my live blog of the Eclipse Awards telecast from Beverly Hills. If you decide not to, as Carnac would say: “May the fleas of a thousand camels nest in your shorts.”
Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report
Savvy businesses recognize value. Advertise in the Paulick Report.
Sign up for our Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick
