As Andy mentions, the voters seem to really struggle with any imaginative comprehension past the obvious earnings lists. It's an embarrassment and indicative of people that aren't really following the game, are too lazy to work beneath the surface figures and don't particularly care about properly recognizing the stakeholders.

To tackle breeder for a moment, Besilu is not in the sport anymore and accrued it's numbers almost entirely via the exploits of Gun Runner. WinStar, a commercial breeding factory, had Bolt d'Oro, New Money Honey and American Patriot as their headliners in what was obviously a sub-par year. From 226 WinStar products that made starts in 2017, there were 9 Graded Stake wins (4 G1's).

By comparison, Live Oak Stud (Mrs. Weber) homebred 4 different Graded Stakes winners that won 8 stakes (3 G1's). That came from just 46 horses that started in '17. You say earnings are your priority? OK.. Live Oak runners earned $15,524 per start v. WinStar's $6,948.

Mrs. Weber will have a Champion in World Approval and some might say that's a nice acknowledgement of her season. But in fact, 2017 was one of the best years she's had in 50 years in the game and this was an ideal opportunity for anyone paying attention to reward her with a Breeder ~ or Owner ~ Eclipse for decades of service to the sport. A reward she would greatly cherish.

As Andy noted too, the failure the past 2 years to take notice of Seth Klarman & Bill Lawrence is equally inexcusable.

It's all very irksome to anyone that takes their involvement in the industry seriously.

Announcement coming today apparently..

More from Jessica Chapel on past controversies: http://jessicachapel.com/2018/01/06/...-then-and-now/

Until you win an Eclipse for your service to the industry, I view the media categories as complete drivel. Every friggin day you are on the air bringing listeners the most current news within the industry. You bring virtually every significant player from every facet of the sport on air and delve into whatever is substantial with their visit. How in the world any of these "matter of fact" pieces have any substantive effect on the sport and or the people that follow it vs. what you do day in and day out is dubious at best. Frankly, I find the whole matter just another example of the blind leading the blind.

For better or worse, the Eclipse Awards do not take a broad view of the accomplishments of the entrants. They focus on the one entry. For some relatively obvious reasons, I have issues with this, but at the same time, I also understand it. I think it works in many cases but has drawbacks in others. Like many here, I would love to see Steve recognized for his contributions to the Industry, but as of yet the Industry has failed to do that. Hopefully that will change at some point. I am confident that it will.

You left out the part about what dapper dresser he is. I’d go if he got an eclipse award. It was cool to finally meet him at Saratoga this year. Wifey loved his canary yellow blazer.

Fred, Andy, Dan..

Thank you. Greatly appreciate the sentiments.

2017 Eclipse Awards

Horse of the Year: Gun Runner

Two-Year-Old Male: Good Magic
Two-Year-Old Filly: Caledonia Road

Three-Year-Old Male: West Coast
Three-Year-Old Filly: Abel Tasman

Older Dirt Male: Gun Runner
Older Dirt Female: Forever Unbridled

Male Sprinter: Roy H.
Female Sprinter: Unique Bella

Male Turf Horse: World Approval
Female Turf Horse: Lady Eli
Steeplechase Horse: Scorpiancer

Owner: Juddmonte
Breeder: Clearsky Farms

Jockey: Jose Ortiz
Apprentice Jockey: Evin Roman

Trainer: Chad Brown

Just wanted say Steve , you deserve ☝️ of those, just got done watching tvg.

Thank you. I appreciate the sentiment and should take the opportunity to say how kind it was of Ray Arsenault to include me in his speech.

The tallies below represent only first-place votes from members of the consolidated voting entities, NTRA, Daily Racing Form and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.

Voter participation rate: 250/269= 92.9%

Two-Year-Old Male (Name, First-Place Votes)
Good Magic, 131; Bolt d’Oro, 113; Catholic Boy, 3; Firenze Fire, 1; Mendelssohn, 1; Solomini, 1.

Two-Year-Old Filly
Caledonia, Road, 161; Rushing Fall, 68; Moonshine Memories, 17; Dream Tree, 2; Dream It Is, 1; Road to Victory, 1.

Three-Year-Old Male
West Coast, 229; Always Dreaming, 14; Battle of Midway, 5; Irap, 1; Mastery, 1.

Three-Year-Old Filly
Abel Tasman, 244; Unique Bella, 5; Elate, 1.

Older Dirt Male
Gun Runner, 247; Arrogate, 3.

Older Dirt Female
Forever Unbridled, 237; Songbird, 8; Stellar Wind, 4; Voter Abstentions, 1.

Male Sprinter
Roy H, 241; Imperial Hint, 5; Drefong, 1; Mind Your Biscuits, 1; Stormy Liberal, 1; Voter Abstentions, 1.

Female Sprinter
Unique Bella, 90, Paulassilverlining, 60; Ami’s Mesa, 41; Bar of Gold, 36; Lady Aurelia, 8; By the Moon, 5; American Gal, 3; Finley’sluckycharm, 1; Voter Abstentions, 6.

Male Turf Horse
World Approval, 211; Beach Patrol 20; Talismanic (GB), 11; Highland Reel (IRE), 8.

Female Turf Horse
Lady Eli, 203; Wuheida (GB), 33; Off Limits, 12; Cambodia, 1; La Coronel, 1.

Steeplechase Horse
Scorpiancer (IRE), 92; All the Way Jose, 70; Mr. Hot Stuff, 35; Modem (GB), 7; Diplomat, 4; Swansea Mile (IRE), 3; Voter Abstentions, 39.

Owner
Juddmonte Farms, 143; Winchell Thoroughbreds, 31; Godolphin Racing, 21; Sol Kumin, Head of Plains, Sheep Pond Partners, 19; Klaravich Stables, Inc., and William H. Lawrence, 11; Calumet Farm, 7; End Zone Athletics, 3; Charles Fipke, 2; Coolmore, 1; e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, 1; Fox Hill Farm, 1; Live Oak Plantation, 1; John Oxley, 1; Stonestreet Stables, 1; Voter Abstentions, 7.

Breeder
Clearsky Farms, 141; WinStar Farm, 72; Charles Fipke, 8; Belisu Stables, 7; Live Oak Stud, 6; Godolphin Racing/Darley, 4; Brereton C. Jones, 3; Adena Springs, 1; Calumet Farm, 1; Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey, 1; Voter Abstentions, 6.

Trainer
Chad Brown, 215; Bob Baffert, 16; Steve Asmussen, 13; Mark Casse, 2; Todd Pletcher, 2; Voter Abstentions, 2.

Jockey
Jose Ortiz, 189; Mike Smith, 45; Irad Ortiz, Jr.,10; Javier Castellano, 4; Voter Abstentions, 2.

Apprentice Jockey
Evin Roman, 232; Katie Clawson, 4; Jenn Miller, 1. Voter Abstentions, 13.

Horse of the Year
Gun Runner, 248; Arrogate, 2

So who were the two jackals that voted arrogate horse of the year? Their voting privileges should be taken away :zz:

one of them probably posts often in the selections forum.

-bt-

:tro::)

That was nice of Ray. Nice to see you talk about your votes and reasoning. This is all opinion. And it's great. I enjoy hearing those who put the thought in.

I'm not gonna hate on that, I just wouldn't vote the same way. Sure, Arrogate's year fell apart but it still includes the 2017 Pegasus and the Dubai World Cup, the latter a truly jaw dropping performance (and that's in the context of Arrogate's other races), one that got him ranked #1 in the world. They knew Gun Runner was a shoo-in. Turning Arrogate out might've resulted in a different BCC (and you know Bob could get him back in shape even if he did still hate Del Mar). He wins that race, they go Arrogate for HOY in a landslide. A sentimental vote for the better horse with a bad year who finished the year as the top ranked racehorse isn't so bad.

I found the votes for Irap and Mastery more dumbfounding.

Anyway, it's nice that no horse (or entity) was edged out in any category. All the winners won decisively.

It depends on how you look at it. If you’re looking for most accomplished, Mastery shouldn’t get a vote. But if you follow a different way of thinking, the one that says you vote for the best horse of all those that are qualified, it’s not hard to see why Mastery would get votes. He looked like he was going to be really good. In my opinion, a vote for him wouldn’t be much different than voting for Singspiel. He won the award as top turf horse and didn’t win a single race in this country.

I was just reading the BH article on Good Magic's Eclipse win and wow that comment section's 'he wuz robbed' about Bolt D'Oro... I guess the Chromies have a new champion. Of course they're also crying about East Coast Bias and all that. This is gonna be insufferable. :rolleyes: