JC / Railbird

Horse of the Year

Congratulations, Ramon

Ramon Dominguez’s 15-year career as a jockey has been more journeyman than money rider. Before moving his tack to New York in 2009, where he swept the leading rider title at every NYRA meet that year and scored his 4000th career win at Aqueduct last March, he dominated the mid-Atlantic circuit, only occasionally breaking through nationally, as he did when Better Talk Now won the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Turf or Scrappy T collided with Afleet Alex at the top of the Pimlico stretch in the 2005 Preakness Stakes.

In 2010, hard work and talent not only made Dominguez one of the most consistent and capable jockeys in the game, it also made him one of the most successful, with earnings of $16,911,880 and 369 wins, including 43 stakes, five of those G1s. Last night, out-polling Garrett Gomez 124-60, Dominguez won his first Eclipse Award. Of the honor, NYRA handicapper Andy Serling said it best: “Glad to see Ramon Dominguez win the Eclipse for Jockey of the Year. People like him make me proud to work in this industry.”

More Dominguez! Here’s a Flickr gallery of the jockey, with stakes winners Better Talk Now, Gio Ponti, Haynesfield, Fabulous Strike …

More Eclipse Awards: Steve Crist counts votes, Claire Novak recaps, Bill Dwyre celebrates with Horse of the Year Zenyatta’s connections (“I’m so happy for the fans”), Foolish Pleasure lists. And even more reactions via Raceday 360 …

Posted in Industry on January 18, 2011 / Tagged Eclipse Awards, Horse of the Year, Jockeys, New York, Ramon Dominguez, Zenyatta

Zenyatta Feminista?

I’ve tried to stay away from the 2010 Horse of the Year debate. I don’t have a vote, and if I did, I might have been tempted toward the same conclusion as Alan Shuback before narrowly landing on Zenyatta as my pick for the honor. That would seem to put me on the same side of the debate as most female fans and voters. Steve Davidowitz, opening up his HOTY vote to fans for the second year in a row, reports quite a skew in the responses he’s received:

Get this: The actual tally of 147 fans that sent me E-mails and posted comments on this website was an astonishing 132 for Zenyatta and only 15 for Blame!

That imbalance of opinion similarly was skewed by the presence of so many female voters in my poll, as only 24 men voted, while 123 women participated.

The male vote was split down the middle, 12 for Blame and 12 for Zenyatta.

Looking at this another way, only three of the 123 women in my poll voted for Blame!

Turf writers’ ballots revealed so far are running along similar lines: Four of five women* have voted for Zenyatta; nine of 19 men for Blame, nine for Zenyatta.

12:00 PM Addendum: *Four of six, with Alicia Wincze casting a vote for Blame.

1/6/11 Addendum: Wow, Jennie Rees — who said she was going to vote Blame HOTY in a blog post a couple weeks ago — didn’t vote for either leading contender. “Very late in the game, I decided just to not vote in the Horse of the Year category — I made the decision not to make a decision.”

Posted in Racing on January 4, 2011 / Tagged Blame, Eclipse Awards, Eclipse Voters, Horse of the Year, Women and Racing, Zenyatta

The Way It Is

Gary West on the Breeders’ Cup Classic results deciding HOTY:

Zenyatta’s 14 victories before this year, and all the goodwill and inspiration she has meted out, and all the publicity and attention she has brought to the game and all her brilliant charismatic flashes probably won’t trump what happens when the latches of the gate spring open a few minutes after sunset on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs. That’s just the way it is.

If Zenyatta loses to another leading HOTY prospect, it’ll be a crisis.

Posted in Racing on October 24, 2010 / Tagged Breeders' Cup, Classic, Distaffers, Eclipse Awards, Horse of the Year, Ugly Debates, Zenyatta

Awards Trivia

Goldikova has surpassed Canford Cliffs in the running for this year’s Cartier Awards Horse of the Year. A record third win in the Breeders’ Cup Mile will clinch it, just as a second straight win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic will assure Zenyatta of the Eclipse Awards Horse of the Year title. If both win, it’ll be the first time in the 20 years that the European and American awards have existed concurrently that mares are named HOTY in the same year. It’ll also be the second time in three years for both the Cartier and Eclipse awards that a female horse is named Horse of the Year. Not quite two years after Foolish Pleasure dubbed 2008 the first “Year of the Chick,” distaffers are still on a roll.

Posted in Racing on October 5, 2010 / Tagged Cartier Awards, Champions, Distaffers, Eclipse Awards, Goldikova, Horse of the Year, Zenyatta