Looooong, written-on-the-fly, hence rambling, post. Be sure to read all: Im a Dan Fan, whos still beyond impressed with what he, at 7-years-old (!!!), accomplished in 2014: 4 starts, 4 wins, 3 of them G1, including the $1M Shadwell Turf, where he broke last, yet managed to fight his way to the Winners Circle. In the Bernard Baruch, he conceded 11 pounds to Optimizer and still came within a fifth of the track record -- and this was the first start back for Dan since undergoing colic surgery! News that he would not be able to go for his third consecutive score in the Breeders Cup Mile due to injury was heart-wrenching... While Wise Dan is my Horse of the Year, the actual ballot-wielding voters will most likely narrow their nominees down to those featured in this TVG segment ;) So, if it cant be Dan, in my humble opinion, it should be California Chrome. Until the Belmont, Chrome was on a stakes-winning streak, including decisive victories in the Cal Cup Derby, San Felipe, Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby, and Preakness. He was significantly injured right after the gates opened in the Belmont, yet still ran gallantly, coming within 1-3/4 lengths of doing something which has not been accomplished in my lifetime -- becoming the 12th Triple Crown Champion. He took time off to heal and was, unsurprisingly, a bit lackluster in the first race back. In the Breeders Cup Classic, he finished third, only a neck short the triumphant Bayern. Trakus shows that Chrome traveled well over 4-lengths further over the course of the race, and at a faster clip. In fact, in the final quarter, the three fastest finishers were Tonalist, Zivo, and, yup, Chrome. Some say Bayern should be Horse of the Year, beating Chrome in two of their three meetings. I think Bayern is an extraordinary horse, but disagree. In the Preakness, he finished 9th, beaten 21 lengths, I cant get too excited about a horse defeating another coming off a long layoff, and as for the Classic... he took out the other pace in the race when knocking Shared Belief into the speedy Moreno. Its also hard to count a MSW score and an allowance as Horse of the Year type accomplishments. What a horse does on track is the most important, but exceptionalism goes beyond it. Dont misunderstand me, however, because this argument tends to get reduced to semantics. When people say, What the horse has done for racing counts, theyre not talking about superficial popularity. California Chrome is one of the few horses running this year that is known beyond our own racing news outlets. He earned his reputation, not for being pretty, but because he was good enough -on the track- to reach the threshold of history. That means something -- something that can be counted in the new fans we gained thanks to that campaign. Just my opinion... Youre all, of course, entitled to your own. Thats the beauty of the Horse of the Year vote. If it was just about number of races won, etc... there would be a points system. Subjectivity plays a role instead. So, as the debate goes on, Ill just sit back, ultimately happy with whomever comes out on top, because I can understand the arguments for all... and will always contend that Dans still the man ;)
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 02:57:28 +0000
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