Eclipse Finalists

[Tairaterces]

Human, Equine Eclipse Finalists Announced
by Blood-Horse Staff
Date Posted: 1/5/2006 11:27:05 AM
Last Updated: 1/5/2006 11:35:21 AM

With the exception of Horse of the Year, three finalists in each category for Eclipse Awards were announced Thursday by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, National Turf Writers Association, and Daily Racing Form, the three organizations that vote for year-end honors. Winners in all categories, and Horse of the Year, will be announced at the 35th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony, to be held Monday, Jan. 23 at Regent Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The Eclipse Awards finalists (in alphabetical order) are:

2-Year-Old Male: First Samurai, Henny Hughes, Stevie Wonderboy

2-Year-Old Female: Adieu, Folklore, Wild Fit

3-Year-Old Male: Afleet Alex, Flower Alley, Giacomo

3-Year-Old Female: Round Pond, Smuggler, Summerly

Older Male: Borrego, Rock Hard Ten, Saint Liam

Older Female: Ashado, Pleasant Home, Stellar Jayne

Sprinter: Lost in the Fog, Saratoga County, Silver Train

Male Turf Horse: Artie Schiller, Leroidesanimaux, Shirocco

Female Turf Horse: Cesario, Intercontinental, Megahertz

Steeplechase: Hirapour, McDynamo, Sur La Tete
·
Owner: Michael Gill, Live Oak Plantation, Melnyk Racing Stables, Inc.
·
Breeder: Adena Springs, Edward P. Evans, Live Oak Stud
·
Trainer: Steve Asmussen, Robert Frankel, Todd Pletcher
·
Jockey: Jerry Bailey, Edgar Prado, John Velazquez
·
Apprentice Jockey: Channing Hill, Justin Stein, Emma-Jayne Wilson

NTRA Commissioner D.G. Van Clief, Jr. will present the Horse of the Year trophy to the winning connections at the conclusion of the Eclipse Awards ceremony.

[Sam]

Regent Beverly Wilshire

Anyone else have Pretty Woman flashbacks when they hear this hotel name

So ... come on folks, what's your guess...

The Eclipse Awards finalists (in alphabetical order) are:

2-Year-Old Male: First Samurai, Henny Hughes, Stevie Wonderboy

No brainer -- Stevie Wonderboy

2-Year-Old Female: Adieu, Folklore, Wild Fit

Again, no brainer -- Folklore, though it is nice to see Wild Fit got a nod.

3-Year-Old Male: Afleet Alex, Flower Alley, Giacomo

Alex, obviously. Interesting that Lost in the Fog didn't even get a nod .. just goes to show they won't stiff a dual classic winner if they can kick the only other solid candidate into another category.

3-Year-Old Female: Round Pond, Smuggler, Summerly

Okay, this one I'm stumped on only because I really don't pay much attention to the girls. I don't even think I could name one race any of them won last year.

Older Male: Borrego, Rock Hard Ten, Saint Liam

Oh for the want of a Breeders' Cup start. -- Saint Liam. Can't possibly go to anyone else.

Older Female: Ashado, Pleasant Home, Stellar Jayne

See comment about 3yo fillies .. though I am slightly more aware of these girls. I'd say probably Ashado.

Sprinter: Lost in the Fog, Saratoga County, Silver Train

Even with the loss, I wouldn't be surprised if LitF won in a unanimous vote.

Male Turf Horse: Artie Schiller, Leroidesanimaux, Shirocco

I absolutely CANNOT stand it when people want to give a foreign horse a championship title off ONE RACE in this country. Come ON, this isn't the academy awards where we're talking about a single "best performance". This is suppose to be an award for the best SEASON and one race does NOT a season make. How did Shirocco even get nominated? I'm leaning more towards Leroidesanimaux for this one.

Female Turf Horse: Cesario, Intercontinental, Megahertz

Again, one race does not a season make. Cesario was awesome in her one race but not awesome enough. Intercontinental.

Steeplechase: Hirapour, McDynamo, Sur La Tete

I've got a soft spot for old Mac. Don't think Sur La Tete has much chance. Going to be a close vote between Mac and Hirapour.

Owner: Michael Gill, Live Oak Plantation, Melnyk Racing Stables, Inc.

Breeder: Adena Springs, Edward P. Evans, Live Oak Stud

Trainer: Steve Asmussen, Robert Frankel, Todd Pletcher

Jockey: Jerry Bailey, Edgar Prado, John Velazquez

Apprentice Jockey: Channing Hill, Justin Stein, Emma-Jayne Wilson

I'm not even going to try there ... I don't pay enough attention to the humans to make even a decent guess.

[Tairaterces]

Even with the loss, I wouldn't be surprised if LitF won in a unanimous vote.

If Mike Watchmaker has anything to say about it don't be surprised if one of the other two wins . . . . . . . . . which would be a total rip . . . . .kind of like when With Anticipation lost the Eclipse . .

Everyone talks about changing the Triple Crown . . . . . . . the Eclipse awards needs changing much more. All races should be on a point system.
These awards should be for the best horses, not the flavor of the month.

Scrappy T

[Tairaterces]

Even with the loss, I wouldn't be surprised if LitF won in a unanimous vote.

If Mike Watchmaker has anything to say about it don't be surprised if one of the other two wins . . . . . . . . . which would be a total rip . . . . .kind of like when With Anticipation lost the Eclipse . .

Everyone talks about changing the Triple Crown . . . . . . . the Eclipse awards needs changing much more. All races should be on a point system.
These awards should be for the best horses, not the flavor of the month.

Scrappy T

[Sam]

Even with the loss, I wouldn't be surprised if LitF won in a unanimous vote.

If Mike Watchmaker has anything to say about it don't be surprised if one of the other two wins

I can't even begin to contemplate how he'd justify that. Other than the BC, what did Silver Train win this year. Saratoga County was good, but no where near as dominating as Litf was. Let me guess, his stance is the "He didn't beat older horses" thing?

[Tairaterces]

Oh if it were only that simple . . . . . he hates the horse or the connections, who knows????

Here is this weeks "Watch"

1 - Silver Train
Gets this ranking off his BC Sprint win
2 - Commentator
Goes long, but is also effective sprinting
3 - Lost in the Fog
Has yet to beat a genuinely good horse
4 - Bordonaro
Showed vast improvement in late 2005
5 - Greg's Gold 8 - Gotaghostofachance
6 - Battle Won 9 - I'm the Tiger
7 - Captain Squire 10 - Elusive Jazz

I wish I could find all of his previous "watch's" for this year and you would see the most inane reasoning . . . . . . Foggy deserved to be at the top of this list quite a few times this last year . . .but never got higher than 3rd.
Anyway . . . . . . . .

T

[Des]

I don't think Mike hates the horse. He just didn't think he was as good as a lot of people thought he was. He said if he had beaten the breeders cup field he would more than tip his hat to him.


Anyway the Fog is a very nice horse and he's allowed to run a bad one.


As for the Jocks... Johnny V should win, he broke the money earnings title for the year.

[JeremyRoseFan]

Here are my picks:

2YOMale: Stevie Wonderboy
2YOFemale: Folklore
3YOMale: Afleet Alex all the way!!!!
3YOFemale: Summerly
OlderMale: Saint Liam
OlderFemale: I looove Stellar Jayne...but Ashado will probably win
Sprinter: Lost in the Fog
MaleTurf: Leroidesanimaux
FemaleTurf: Intercontinental
Steeplechase: no clue
Owner: no clue
Breeder: dunno
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Big Jerry Bailey fan but....John Velazquez will probably win
Apprentice Jocley: no clue[/quote]

[Sam]

1 - Silver Train
Gets this ranking off his BC Sprint win

So basically he's one of these who believe a single race is enough to base a championship on?

I never liked the guy anyway and he comes off as an ass on that Blinker's Off thing. I tend to tune him out.

[Heidilady]

Steeplechase: Hirapour, McDynamo, Sur La Tete

I've got a soft spot for old Mac. Don't think Sur La Tete has much chance. Going to be a close vote between Mac and Hirapour.

You've gotta be kidding. McDynamo just got done beating Hirapour and he did it twice this season. It's a no brainer. There's not even a tie to make this complicated. The last time the two faced each other was basically for all the marbles.

About Intercontinental, I guess she should get it fair and square but Megahertz is my personal fave and it's not her fault the turf was like it was. Still way to go to anybody who can get Intercontinental to relax so I guess props to where it's due. She's very good and it's clearly genetic.

Ashado's an obvious older mare although I loved Stellar Jayne--I loved her more with Lukas, Saint Liam an obvious older male, I can see how Lost in the Fog didn't make 3yo colt. They were super impressed with Flower Alley's 2 biggest showings this year and Giacomo won the Derby which they figure's an automatic 'in' with your clear winner being Afleet Alex. If they give LITF champ sprinter then both colts get something (without keeping the other prominent 2 3yos from even a nomination) when they give the HOY to Saint Liam (which still irks me but not my fault Alex never started at the end of the year. Hard to push half a season however brilliant which sucks..I still think he'd have won the BCC given the chance but good job on not risking him breaking down with the bone density curfluffle in his leg)... Interesting that Roman Ruler didn't get anything but he wouldn't have won anyway so I dunno what I'm getting annoyed with. FA did so well in the Classic and Travers that he's a good filler.

I really have trouble between Summerly and Smuggler myself but Summerly's a hardknocker that I'm fond of and Smuggler's got awesome connections. Toughie. 2yo's obvious with Stevie getting it. All 3 colts there are awesome as are the 3 2yo fillies but Folklore's my favorite cuz she's a Tiznow plus she rocked it this year. Leroidesanimaux, as good as Artie is.

And quickie shout out to Emma-Jayne Wilson for Apprentice Jockey. Awesome that she's getting some buzz. Very talented as I understand it and possibly the next Julie Krone as far as the sport's concerned. I'm a Jerry Bailey fan cuz those DRF commercials he did back in the day were slick (you know you rocked it Jerry lol) but John Velazquez got a lot of boosting from people I talked to so who knows. Unsure on owner although Gill did come out on top like he often does. Not sure how likable I find him but dunno if that's even the point. I suppose Adena Springs for breeder but I'm drawing a blank on the other two's contributions. Can anybody give us some horses for each breeder and owner that justify their nominations? I'll go for Todd Pletcher as trainer cuz I like me some Lukas-assistant domination. I don't go for an all out point system on the Eclipse Awards because frankly it kills the excitement of a smidge of subjectivity but maybe have a portion of the votes assigned via earned race results and still have voters for another part of it. Is a blowout in one G1 the same as squeaking another at the wire as a longshot? Too many mitigating circumstances over the course of a season but if there's some earning of points mixed in with that, it'll help smooth things out.