John Pricci

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The Eclipse Awards honoring thoroughbred racing’s champions often have been likened to Oscars for equines and their handlers. It could be worse. They could have likened it to the Golden Globes. Could you imagine leaving Afleet Alex off this year’s Eclipse ballot? Never happen, you say. That would be like, say, ignoring “King Kong.”

Anyway, time has come to fill out the ballot before the glue on the postage stamps freezes. So, for those who care about such matters, this is what Ballot 228 will look like when it arrives at the accounting firm:

Juvenile Colts and Geldings: Although the new Stevie Wonder collection might have been somewhat disappointing, not so his namesake. Stevie Wonderboy is for real, emphatically proving his visually impressive Del Mar Futurity score was no mirage. He won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile like a good horse. He hasn’t raced around two turns, but that’s not a 2-year-old imperative. Winning the Juvenile is. First Samurai actually had one more Grade 1 win, having won the Hopeful and Champagne. His Breeders’ Cup third might have been good enough had Stevie Wonderboy not won as emphatically as he did. We will await the results of the December 18 Hollywood Futurity to see if the impressive Your Tent Or Mine remains undefeated, earning a third-place vote. Otherwise, it’s What A Song.

Juvenile Fillies: Like the boys, filly champions have been Breeders’ Cup top-heavy since the inaugural running in 1984, and the 2005 Juvenile Fillies will produce another champion in Folklore. The Juv Fillies was her second Grade 1, having previously won the Matron. Then Wayne Lukas always had a knack with young ladies. Folklore split four meetings with Adieu, but once while the whole world was watching. Two things Adieu’s trainer said during the season. Todd Pletcher was adamant that the Spinaway should be a Grade 1 both before and after Adieu’s victory. And that maybe his old teacher outfoxed him when he prepped in the Matron instead of the longer Frizette. The Matron gave Folklore three added weeks of rest going into the big one. Fillies runner-up Wild Fit is a classy Californian that might prove better than the top two at 3. This year, she’s third best.

Slide show   Images of the Triple Crown See images from the 2005 Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.

Three-Year-Old Colt or Gelding: You were expecting King Kong, perhaps? Well, Double Crown winner Afleet Alex’s act in the Preakness was not only the biggest show in racing this year but was a legendary feat, an instant classic. He won four stakes from six starts, from six furlongs to a mile and a half. We miss him already. Clearly, Flower Alley was the leading second-season sophomore. The Jim Dandy/Travers Saratoga sweeper and placing to older Horse of the Year favorite Saint Liam in the Classic stamps him second best. More on Lost in the Fog, third-place on this ballot, in the Sprint.

Three-Year-Old Filly: Originally I was going to no-vote this category because neither of the top two choices raced beyond July 23, but decided it was unfair to equines and people involved. In a limited campaign, Smuggler won three of four starts, including the Mother Goose and Coaching Club American Oaks, and was second in the Grade 1 Acorn. Those scores were exactly one more Grade 1 than any other sophomore filly. Summerly thrice was a graded stakes winner, including the highly coveted Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks. In the Gold, winner of the Grade 1 Gazelle in a laudable nine-race, 10-month campaign, deserves third-place recognition. Maybe better.

Four-Year-Old and Up, Male: Saint Liam is expected to parley his four Grade 1-victory championship handicap season into a Horse of the Year title. Deserving on both counts, he won Grade 1s from early February through late October. He raced in Grade 1 company exclusively in 2005 and lost but twice. No horse is more deserving. Borrego, whose two Grade 1s lifted last year’s three-year-old champion Smarty Jones to an even higher level this year, was second on our ballot, a nose ahead of hard luck Big Cap winner Rock Hard Ten. To many, these three pale in comparison to Ghostzapper or even Roses In May. It’s the body of work that counts. The rest is conversation.

Four-Year-Old Female: By her standards, strict markers might think that Ashado didn’t quite live it to her hype or gazillion dollar price tag as breeding stock. But three Grade 1 victories gets’er done for us despite Pleasant Home’s tour de force Distaff. That effort, good enough in any other year when added to placings in the Grade 1 Ballerina and Spinster, was second best. Happy Ticket, making an impact wherever she raced, won the Ballerina and was second in the Grade 1 Beldame.

Sprinter, Three-Year-Olds and Up: Repeat, three-year-olds, and up. Lost in the Fog had a puncher’s chance for Horse of the Year had the Breeders’ Cup turned out differently for him and Saint Liam. And there was the specter of Afleet Alex, too. But that, too, is conversation. Despite his Breeders’ Cup defeat, Lost in the Fog displayed more sprinting talent than any other horse in the country. Eight victories in nine starts, including five graded stakes and the Grade 1 Kings Bishop, is accomplishment enough for reasonable men and women. Until the Immaculate Recovery in Baltimore, he was America’s impact three-year-old. Another sophomore, Sprint winner Silver Train, was the only horse his age to win on Breeders’ Cup day. And no sprinter this year ran six furlongs faster than his 1:07 3/5 clocking on July 2. Ill-fated Saratoga County was undefeated in three starts this year including the Grade 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, without benefit of Lasix, under 126-pound scale-weight conditions. Four-year-old deserved a better fate.

Turf Male, Three-Year-Olds and Up: Traditionally, this title goes to the best turf horse at distances from a mile and a quarter and farther. Not this year. While defending champion Better Talk Now was a dual Grade 1 winner this year, he will not get top consideration here: Not all Grade 1s are created equal. Miler Leroidesanimeaux was a dominant performer in a short four-race campaign, winning two Grade 1s and the Grade 2 Fourstardave, placing in the Breeders’ Cup Mile to thrice graded-stakes winning Artie Schiller. Better Talk Now, third on our ballot, was the division’s only other dual Grade 1 winner.

Female Turf, Three-Year-Olds and Up: If the male category signifies a break in tradition, my vote for Ouija Board is nothing less than heresy. There is no requirement that foreign horses win an American Grade 1, or any stakes race, only that they run in this country. She finished second to Intercontinental in the Filly & Mare Turf after winning a European Grade 3 and before winning a Japanese Grade 1 earlier this month: Three continents, two graded stakes victories, a Grade 1 win and placing, overcoming a debilitating stress fracture this summer. The defending champion did not lose her title to anyone in this division. Cesario, a dual Grade 1 winner in Japan and America, a worthy third in a strange year.

Steeplechase: McDynamo (two Grade 1 wins, two Grade 1 placings); Hirapour (two Grade 1s, lost rubber match to McDynamo); Sur La Tete (defeated both, but only one Grade 1 in shortened campaign).

Horse of the Year: Saint Liam; Afleet Alex; Lost in the Fog.

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Football frenzy, surfing sensation, misery for Cubs fans, and more. more photos

Breeder: Edward P. Evans (first in graded stakes earnings, first in Grade 1 wins [four], fourth in overall earnings); Live Oak Plantation (tie for first in graded stakes wins [seven], third in graded earnings, eighth in earnings overall); Farnsworth Farms (first in overall wins, third overall in earnings). [All statistics through 11.28.05].

Owner: Cash Is King Stables (first in generosity of spirit and love of the game); Melnyk Racing Stables (second in overall earnings, third in graded earnings, 12^th in number of wins from third-fewest starters); Michael Gill (on volume, first in wins and earnings).

Trainer: Todd Pletcher (all-time record earnings, first in stakes wins, first in graded victories); Steve Asmussen (first in overall wins, third overall earnings); Rick Dutrow (masterful handling of Saint Liam).

Jockey: John Velazquez (all-time season earnings, first in graded earnings, first in win percentage at highest levels); J.D. Bailey (first in Grade 1 wins, first in demand); Edgar Prado (prolific at highest levels).

Apprentice Jockey: Emma-Jayne Wilson (first in wins, overall earnings and Canada’s first female leading rider); Justin Stein (second leading rider, first in percentage); Channing Hill (second in earnings overall, poise at highest levels).

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