Horses of the Decade Part II: The Boys

After looking at the gals in Part I, we're turning to the boys in Part II. Because the discussion for the 3 year old colts is fairly length, we're going to break it up into two pieces. In the next post we'll get to the male turf horse and sprint horse, and have some other side awards, Bill Simmons-style.

2yo colt

Let's dispense with the easy ones. Action This Day (2003) is in the running for worst horse to win an Eclipse Award (we may do a small bit on that later on) with exactly one good win to his credit, the BC Juvenile. Declan's Moon (2004) was a nice horse that won by default when a bomb won the Juvenile. Macho Uno (2000), Stevie Wonderboy (2005), Street Sense (2006) and Midshipman (2008) were all fine specimens of horseflesh--this group includes a Kentucky Derby winner--but basically won the Eclipse award solely because they won the Juvenile. That's fine and good, but knocks them out of the running for something grander. So let's look at the four remaining contenders.

Johannesburg (2001). Went 7-for-7 as a 2 year old, which included four Grade 1 wins, 3 in Europe and one in the BC Juvenile. There's little to find fault with here, except to note that the Juvenile was his only route race and his only dirt race, and in that, his chief contenders (Officer, Siphonizer) threw in clunkers on either a dead rail or an off day.

Vindication (2002). 4-for-4 in his 2yo campaign, he had a visually impressive win in the Kentucky Juvenile and then won the Breeders Cup Juvenile in somewhat impressive fashion. Somewhat. Compromising the accolades for his win was that his chief contender (Sky Mesa) was an early scratch and his top competitor (Hold That Tiger) broke poorly and had a ride from hell. We're impressed but not bowled over.

War Pass (2007). The fastest of all the 2yos this decade, he was 4-for-4 and popped off a speed figure over 110 in his BC Juvenile win. The caveats are that his Juvenile win came in the slop, where other horses may not have fired their best shot and that he was never really challenged early in any of his races (he was a speedball).

Lookin at Lucky (2009). Won three Grade 1's and was a very, very unfortunate 2nd in the BC Juvenile to Vale of York. We like that this horse won stakes races at a bunch of different distances and stretched out from a sprint to a route with no difficulty. We also like that after running in the Juvenile he came back and won another stakes race in December; the number of horses that have just packed it in after October/November are innumerable. He's a bit of a throwback to the horses in the 90's (Favorite Trick, Real Quiet) who ran actual lengthy campaigns as juveniles. We don't like that he never ran on a dirt track, but it's not his fault that California mandated that all dirt tracks be converted to synthetics.

To us, it comes down to how much credit you give Johannesburg for his overseas sprint wins and a goofy BC Juvy win versus Lookin at Lucky's dominance over a synthetic surface. We give Johannesburg a lot of credit for his overseas exploits, but note that winning a bunch of turf sprints as a two year old is a far cry from the success Euros have in older races with stiff competition; it's easier to duck or miss big horses when you're a Juvenile. By contrast, this year's champion took on all the best horses in the States, was repeatedly successful in route races and was clearly the best horse of his class. We're not sure that was the case with Johannesburg, who may have just been the best in on BC day when only one other horse (Repent) fired.

Eclipse Ballot: 1. Lookin at Lucky; 2. Johannesburg; 3. War Pass.

3yo colt

We remind everyone that for this group we're only looking at a horse's 3 year old campaign, which means all those that want to argue that it has to be either Curlin or Tiznow...save it for Horse of the Decade debates. This is actually a pretty fun group to analyze because there are six horses that won two legs of the Triple Crown, three other horses that won one leg plus the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and one horse that skipped the Triple Crown but won Horse of the Year. A countdown is in order.

10. Funny Cide (2003). His three-year-old season had three good races: a nice second in the Wood, a Derby win, and a Preakness romp. Honestly, his best race was probably losing the Wood where he showed good speed and guts. After that he won the Derby over an ailing Empire Maker (who he couldn't beat in the Wood), and beat only one horse of any consequence (Peace Rules) in the Preakness. By the end of the year, few really thought he was better than Empire Maker, who beat him again in the Belmont, and Funny Cide's 8-2-2-2 record for the year is unimpressive.

9. War Emblem (2002). One of the odder horses to contend for the Triple Crown, as he was all or nothing speedball. His 2002 season had 10 races with 5 wins (which included the Illinois and Kentucky Derbies, the Preakness and the Haskell), a 5th place finish, two 6th place finishes and two 8th place finishes. We can't help but think that he's only here because he caught a track bias on Derby Day and won a weak Preakness and Haskell. Had Medaglia d'Oro shown up for the first two legs of the Triple Crown or not succumbed to Volponi in the Breeders Cup Classic, he would have won this award.

8. Summer Bird (2009, presumably). A nothing before the Belmont, he subsequently rattled off wins in the Belmont, Travers and JCGC, before running an okay fourth in the BC Classic. A nice year, and we like him to have a big 4-year-old season.

7. Afleet Alex (2005). But for a horrible loss in the Derby, he would be our twelfth Triple Crown winner, as we previously discussed ad nauseum. Alas, not to be. Like the next two horses, he was fairly talented but we're punishing him a bit for calling it quits early in the year; would it have killed his owners to run him in the fall after he recovered from his minor injury or in 2006?

6. Smarty Jones (2004). We were never big fans of this guy, and still think his Derby was a fluke because of the torrential downpour twenty minutes before post time. Still, for 5 months he was tough to beat and his Belmont run was amazing for 11 furlongs. Also punished because he was retired early and because we lost the Pick Six thanks to his Belmont defeat.

5. Big Brown (2009). Boundless potential, great results except for the Belmont, intolerable connections. We won't belabor the points we made about 86 times last year.

4. Tiznow (2000). This class was a talented group--Tiznow, Giant's Causeway, Albert the Great, Captain Steve, El Corredor, and Aptitude were all very good horses. But the real story from that year was the hype around Fusaichi Pegasus, proclaimed Super Horse before the Derby, after winning the Derby, and after winning the Jerome before the Breeders Cup, despite the horse having breeding, soundness and handling issues. And while the majority presumed that FuPeg would romp at the Breeders Cup, in the end, this guy won in a classic battle with Ireland's Giant's Causeway. Prior to that race, Tiznow was somewhat obscure; he hadn't run in the Triple Crown, and his big wins were the Super Derby and Goodwood. In the end, those three wins made him Horse of the Year. But it was a pretty weak year all around (the best other options were Lemon Drop Kid and Kona Gold--ugh), and while his campaign was neat, it wasn't quite up to the level of the next three.

3. Bernardini (2006). On paper his year wasn't much better than a few of the horses we've already discussed; he won the Preakness, Travers, JCGC and Jim Dandy, which isn't too different from Summer Bird, and Bernardini also ran 2nd in the BC Classic. The difference was how much talent, potential and ability this horse showed. With the possible exception of Big Brown, none of the previous seven horses were as freakish and machine-like as this guy, who from May to September was one of the best horses we've seen this decade. We're still sad he didn't run as a four year old, because he could have been an all-time great.

2. Curlin (2007). He'll get a better treatment from us in the Horse of the Decade debate, so we'll just answer it quickly, why isn't he our #1 instead of...

1. Point Given (2001)...? Broken down, Point Given had a better 3 year old season. Point Given was the only horse to win four $1,000,000 races in a row (Preakness-Belmont-Haskell-Travers) and was fairly dominant in all 4 races over a pretty solid crop of horses. Prior to that, he won both of this Derby preps, including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, and with a better ride, probably could/should have been second in the Derby behind Monarchos. By contrast, Curlin won 3 Grade 1's (Preakness, JCGC and BC Classic), ran a good 2nd in the Belmont and a solid 3rd in the Derby. His campaign was amazing considering he hadn't run as a 2 year old. But for the three year old season only? Point Given's 2001 was the most dominant horse we saw and he gets the nod.

Eclipse Ballot: 1. Point Given; 2. Curlin; 3. Bernardini.

Older Male

We can divide these ten horses into four groups.

(1) Nice horses that won the award because they were the best in weak years, and have no business being in the discussion. By this we mean Left Bank (2002), Lawyer Ron (2007) and whoever wins this year (probably Gio Ponti). Thanks for playing, fellas.

(2) Horses that we clearly the best their year and were in no way transcendent. Lemon Drop Kid (2000), Mineshaft (2003), and Saint Liam (2005) were all very good horses and should have won the Eclipse in their respective years. Are any of them even close to a Hall of Fame conversation? No.

(3) The warriors. Tiznow (2001) and Curlin (2008) both followed up winning Horse of the Year a as a three year old by running ambitious 4 year old campaigns. Tiznow's season was in two parts: he ran well in California by winning the Big 'Cap, then took off the summer to run a pair of 3rd place finishes before winning the BC Classic. A nice year and a nice horse, but not exactly Pensky material.

Curlin won Horse of the Year for his 4 Grade 1 wins in 2008: the Dubai World Cup, Stephen Foster, Woodward and JCGC. He also ran a fairly game second in a try over the turf and a miserable 4th in the BC Classic. Great performances, great talent...there are really no knocks here.

(4) The freaks. Invasor (2006) is the freak closest to people's minds because he ran...well, 3 years ago. On a personal note, we saw this horse in the paddock before he won the 2006 Whitney and were blown away by how enormous he was. A physical specimen, outside of a meh run in Dubai, he won everything else in 2006, including a strong with over Bernardini in the BC Classic. Another horse with few flaws (he followed this up with wins in the Donn and Dubai World Cup in 2007).

But if there's a horse that defined brilliance and talent, it was Ghostzapper (2004). Ghostzapper's 2004 campaign was a perfect 4-for-4 with wins at 7 furlongs (Tom Fool) 9 furlongs (Woodward, some Jersey race) and 10 furlongs (BC Classic). Beyond that year, he won Grade 1's at 6 1/2 furlongs (Vosburgh) and a mile (Met Mile). While rarely healthy, when healthy, he was the fastest horse since Formal Gold and the most versatile in two decades. He could win long or short, in the front or from the rear. And he's the best older horse we saw this decade, hands down.

Eclipse Ballot: 1. Ghostzapper; 2. Curlin; 3. Invasor.

Horses of the Decades Part I: The Females

We had intended to write something about the horses of the decade. And then, Daily Racing Form blogger, publisher, columnist and racing aficionado Steve Crist threw down the gauntlet:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to share your thoughts on which Eclipse Award winners of the soon-to-be-over 2000's were the very best of the decade, division by division. I'll make my final choices next week and the results are scheduled to be published in the DRF newspaper of January 2, 2010.

While we could simply list a bunch of horses in the comments section, there are some interesting debates to be had in many of these categories, and we're suckers for reminiscing about a decade of horse racing. So let's take up Steve's challenge and break down the 10 categories for decade-long Eclipse awards. In Part I, we'll break down the awards to females: 2yo, 3yo, 4yo+ and turf filly. In Part II, we'll break down the awards for males (same groups) and top sprinter. In Part III, we'll see who has a case for Horse of the Decade.

2 year old filly

3 horses won the Eclipse Award in this category solely because they won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies: Caressing in 2000, Tempera (2001) and Dreaming of Anna (2006). As they lack a real championship campaign, they're out of contention, along with whoever wins this year (probably She Be Wild).

Indian Blessing (2007) has had probably the best career out of all of these horses. However, solely looking at her 2 year old campaign (which we think is our charge, at least for the 2yos and 3yos, given that's how they awarded the Eclipse), she ran only 3 times and won the Breeders Cup in the mud where nobody fired. She's out too.

Halfbridled (2003), Sweet Catomine (2004) and Folklore (2005) were all nice horses with strikingly similar campaigns: all had 3 graded stakes wins that included a Grade 2, a non-Breeders Cup Grade 1, and the Breeders Cup JF. They all also have small bonus points in their favor: Folklore won another race and was never worse than second, Halfbridled's Breeders Cup win was probably the most impressive given she started from the deadly outside post, and Sweet Catomine was the most impressive looking on the track. Still, they're pretty tough to separate from each other, and unlike two other horses, lack the third G1 win. So let's look at the real two contenders:

--Storm Flag Flying (2002). Won three Grade 1's in her two year old season: the Matron, Frizette and Breeders Cup JF in a scintillating victory where she was passed in the stretch and came back. Until Zenyatta's Classic win, it was a contender for best BC moment this decade.

--Stardom Bound (2008). Hard to remember now, but at the beginning of this year, this was the three-year-old filly everyone was talking about, and not Rachel Alexandra. And with good reason. She won three G1's in California last year, including the BC JF, in a rallying style like Sweet Catomine but with a hair more panache. All of her stakes wins were authoritative, and everyone thought she'd be a superstar this year. (Sadly, injury kept that from happening.)

At the end of the day, SFF's Breeders Cup win was one of the most impressive this decade, and she did leave California to win a race. That tips the scale slightly in her favor over Stardom Bound. For the third slot, we'll give it to Halfbridled, who beat Ashado in the Breeders Cup (we'll get to her in a minute), won for fun from an outside post on BC day, and could have been a great one had she stayed healthy.

Eclipse Ballot: 1. Storm Flag Flying; 2. Stardom Bound; 3. Halfbridled .

3yo filly

Rachel Alexandra, who will win the 2009 Eclipse for this category in a walk, takes this category for the decade in a walk as well. Her 8-for-8 season with two wins over 3yo males, older males and 40+ lengths of wins in the Kentucky Oaks and Mother Goose is one of the best seasons ever by a filly. It's not worth debating too much, so let's instead ask: who get the other two slots on the ballot?

Let's dispense with the uninteresting ones quickly. Smuggler (2004) is one of the worst Eclipse winners this decade, winning in a year where nobody really put together a solid campaign. Wait a While (2006) and Xtra Heat (2001) won despite being specialists (turfing and sprinting, respectively) because like Smuggler, they succeeded in down years, and while both were neat horses, neither had the resume to be at the top. Farda Amiga (2002) and Proud Spell (2008) had markedly similar seasons with wins in the Kentucky Oaks and Alabama and some other decent showings, and while good, remain a level below the elite. This leaves us with three real contenders for the silver and bronze:

--Surfside (2000) dominated in a winter of 2000 with a pair of G1's (SA Oaks and Las Virgines), took the summer off, then came back to run a good 2nd in the Breeders Cup Distaff and beat the boys in the Clark Handicap. A win over older males means a lot, but the season was a hair odd and erratic.

--Ashado (2004) had an 8 start season with 3 big wins (Kentucky Oaks, CC American Oaks and BC Distaff), a pair of minor wins (Cotillion and Fair Ground Oaks) and a troika of excusable losses (Ashland to speedball Madcap Escapade, Mother Goose to the underrated Stellar Jayne and Alabama when she chased the pace and was caught by Society Selection). One of the better horses to run this decade, if forgotten in the wake of Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra.

--Rags to Riches (2007) is here based on two wins: a dominating win in the Kentucky Oaks and being the first filly to take the Belmont since Teddy Roosevelt was President. There wasn't too much of a campaign beyond that, but when you win the Belmont, you may not need one.

Based on the entire campaign, Ashado (left) clearly had the second-best 3yo filly season: a full 8-race campaign, ran at 7 tracks, and beat older females. We're going to be in the minority here and take Surfside for the third slot; we don't like that Rags to Riches only ran once again after the Belmont and lost the race. Longevity in the campaign does mean a lot.

Eclipse Ballot: 1. Rachel Alexandra; 2. Ashado; 3. Surfside.

Older Fillies and Mares

There are only seven horses to pick from here, as Azeri won three times (2002-2004) and Zenyatta won in 2008 and is a cinch to win it this year. We'll dispense with trying to make a case for Gourmet Girl (2001), Fleet Indian (2006), or Ginger Punch (2007): Gourmet Girl won by default in a horrible year, and Ginger Punch and Fleet Indian are the 5-6 finishers here in some order. We'll also give the above-mentioned Ashado kudos for a nice four year old season while noting that she's clearly the #4 of this group based on her older horse campaign.

How we judge this category actually turns on whether the question is best season or best career. Because if we're simply going by best season, the unheralded Riboletta (2000) is a real contender to dethrone Azeri and Zenyatta. In 2000, Riboletta dominated on both coasts with 5 G1 wins and 3 G2 wins. She entered the Breeders Cup Distaff as a 2-5 favorite that was everyone's lock of the day...and promptly bombed and finished well out of the money. Had she won the Distaff or even finished a strong second, she'd win the "best campaign" hands down.

While we're at it, let's check out the 5 Azeri and Zenyatta campaigns, just to help us split these two up a little:

Azeri '02: After winning a restricted race, she ran second in a G2 then ran off seven straight wins, incluing 5 Grade 1's (one of which was the BC Distraff) and 2 Grade 2's. While she was named Horse of the Year, that was in part because there were no good male horses that year. Indeed, her campaign, outside of the Breeders Cup win, is pretty similar to Riboletta's 2000 season.

Azeri '03: Started off the year with 3 G1's, then won a G2 in California before losing the Lady's Secret to the immortal Got Koko and getting injured before the Breeders Cup. She almost lost this Eclipse to Sightseek; you can't make a case this was her best year.

Azeri '04: D. Wayne Lukas took over her campaign from Laura DeSeroux with some truly odd results. She won the Apple Blossom, Spinster and Go For Wand (all G1's), but lost the Humana Distaff, Ogden Phipps (finishing 4th!) and Personal Ensign. On top of that, she had two starts against males where she was never competitive. Again, far below the '02 season, but kinda neat in retrospect.

Zenyatta '08: 7-for-7 all year (4 G1's, 3 G2's), a win outside of California where she annihilated the previous year's Eclipse winner (Ginger Punch) and true dominance on Breeders Cup day. Contender.

Zenyatta '09: A boring campaign is rounded out by a stellar BC Classic win. One win does not make a season, even if it was one of the greatest wins in BC history.

So what to do? We think that the Eclipse Award for the non-2yo and 3yo categories really should look at a horse's entire body of work. Based on that, Riboletta isn't a contender, as Azeri and Zenyatta tower over her. Still, we do want to note that if we did it based on a single season, she'd win. She was THAT dominant in 2000; nobody came near her until she flopped at Churchill Downs.

As for Azeri versus Zenyatta...this is not an easy debate. Azeri ran around the country, took on all comers, and put together two excellent years and one interesting year. But Zenyatta was undefeated and won the Breeders Cup Classic. You can't argue with perfection. Only Personal Ensign can match her undefeated record, her consistency, and her panache. And that makes her the top pick.

Eclipse Award ballot: 1. Zenyatta; 2. Azeri; 3. Riboletta

Turf Filly

The bias here is going to be fairly high in favor of European based horses, because, with all due respect, horses like Forever Together (2008), Lahudood (2007), Perfect Sting (2000) and Golden Apples (2002) campaigned against American horses and ran almost exclusively other fillies. While there's nothing wrong with that, European fillies raise the bar by routinely take on the boys and win. Their records may be less perfect than their American counterparts, but that goes part and parcel with facing tougher competition. If they repeatedly ran against the likes of Snow Polina and Megahertz, we're confident in arguing that they would have near perfect records.

For example, let's look at the 2003 Eclipse winner, Islington. That year, Islington had two wins and two thirds in six starts, which looks mediocre on its face. But in that campaign, she ran third to High Chapparal and Falbrav in one race (who ran 1-3 in the BC Turf that year), ran third to a pair of Euro studs in Nayef and Rakti earlier that year, and her two off-the-board finishes were a 3-length loss to males and a silly trip to Japan in December. We know results matter. But that's a mile more impressive than Perfect Sting racing against fillies that would be 200-1 against Falbrav.

As impressive as Islington's 2003 campaign was, she's not a contender for the top slot. Ouija Board (right) wins this category hands down based on both the best individual season (2004) and her entire career. Let's sum up a filly that will be mentioned in the Horse of the Decade argument in a few days:

--In 2004, her 3yo season (the best season by any Eclipse winner in this category), she ran five times and won 4 starts, including the BC Filly & Mare Turf, the Irish Oaks and the English Oaks. What's even more impressive is her one loss was a third place finish in Europe's biggest race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Yowks.

--Her next two seasons had "only" 5 wins in 14 starts. But the quality of those wins--damn. They include 4 Grade 1's, ranging from the F&M Turf, the Hong Kong Vase (!), the Nassau Stakes and Prince of Wales Stakes; all races of great import. Her other in the money finishes include the Japan Cup, Irish Champion Stakes, Coronation Cup, QEII Cup, and 2005 F&M Turf as well. She competed against the best and more than held her own. That merits the top spot in this division, and she's arguably the best turf filly to run in this country since Miesque.

--Her 2006 trip to the Breeders Cup resulted in Lord Derby coming to Churchill Downs for the race. His pre-race interview where he mocked how we pronounced the word "Derby" while sporting some horrible teeth was a highlight of the racing season.

After Ouija Board, for the rest of the ballot, it's a question of who you take a shine to between the aforementioned Islington, Banks Hill (2001) and Goldikova (2009, probably). Our personal preference goes to Goldikova for the place slot, based on her two BC Mile wins and her dominance on both sides of the pond (her losses in 2008 were to Zarkava, one of the best fillies this decade period), and Islington, who would have won two straight F&M Turfs but for Kieran Fallon's execrable ride in 2002. Banks Hill, while very good and dominating in the 2001 F&M Turf, lacked the overall je no se qua of the other two and seems to coast by on being out of super-mother Hasili.

Eclipse Award ballot: 1. Ouija Board; 2. Goldikova; 3. Islington

Coming up on Saturday: the males and sprinters.