BEYER: Mucho Man Man an unconvential Horse of Year
 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports...6a3_story.html

Beyer makes case for Mucho Macho Man (and substantively against Wise Dan) as Horse of the Year..

I would vote for Princess of Sylmar before MMM.

Beyer: "People with an appreciation of racing history know that horses with his (Wise Dan's) specialty should not be an American champion."

Perhaps this idea is changing, with higher purses and more competitive turf races.

"And fans should not want to honor a horse whose owner and trainer ducked tough challenges all year."

What modern trainer doesn't pick and choose his already-proven horse's campaign carefully? And as for his competition, how much of this was simply that other trainers/owners were afraid of him? Wise Dan showed the best, most consistent form of any horse in the entire year. 7-6-1-0 in Grade I and II races. If I had a vote, it would go to Wise Dan.

wait...so grass specialty means no. two wins on dirt, also a 'specialty' means yes?

i disagree completely.

i tire of the bias to classic distance dirt horses. putting those horses on a pedestal renders all other classes of horse inferior.
they aren't inferior, they're different.

sorry, winning the bcc shouldn't be the be all, end all. it's called 'championships' but it's not a championship-you get a trophy for the race.

I agree with Beyer on this one. I have no argument that Mucho Macho Man is hardly an ideal choice, but he is a better one than Wise Dan, whose on track performances this year, overall, are significantly worse than his races in 2012.

Wise Dan was campaigned like a champion boxer that tried to bob and weave his way through a title defense. At the very least, he could not afford even a single blip, and that ended up not being the case.

While I applaud Stanco and Pletcher for trying her in BC it did cost her a chance of HoY and that makes what Stanco did all the more sporting

My take on Horse of the Year:


http://www.horseracingnation.com/blo...ns_of_2013_123

altho wise dan may not be as good an HOY as past winners, i just can't see that a horse with two wins has an argument or can be considered a better choice. wise dan won more races this year than MMM made starts.

how many graded races did each win this year?

:tro:

I don't love Wise Dan, but I can't pick a horse that was 2 for 5 with 2 losses in races that weren't even graded. I'd take Will Take Charge before I took Mucho Macho Man.

Wise Dan. Not even close.

Was the BCC in the top 5 of 10f figs for 2013?

I'm not sure off the top of my head, but big competitive fields rarely lead to big figures these days.

my point is...Shouldnt HoY be a fast horse? Especially considering he won all of 2 races in a 5 race campaign. There is an augment to be made that the BCC is the championship race and if the Championship is not awarded to the victory then is it s genuine Championship

I'll be the first to say speed figures can be subjective. I think it should be about accomplishments.

the bcc isn't the championship race. i don't care what they called the thing, it's not the superbowl of racing.

you win the bcc, you get a trophy and a check. if we give hoy to the bcc winner, then i guess we give top 3 yo to the ky derby winner?

sorry, i disagree. the racing season isn't encapsulated in one race. i don't like when a euro comes over, wins the bc turf and leaves with top turfer either.

it's horse of the year, not horse of one race. no way mucho macho man should be hoy, not based on his body of work this year.

DITTO

:tro::tro::tro:

someone said will take charge....he won more races this year than MMM, finished a scant nose behind him in the bcc, and then won the clark over potential hoy game on dude. he's got a lot better resume than MMM. easily the top 3 yo.

and saw earlier that his owner hasn't made any deals, and plans to run the colt next year. great news!