Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Glitches Mar Eclipse Award Voting

The groups running the Eclipse Awards keep trying, and maybe one of these years they’ll get it right.

The Eclipses, racing’s most prestigious awards, are determined by a vote of about 200 turf reporters, track racing secretaries and Daily Racing Form personnel, and in many years since the program began in 1971, there have been glitches in the system.

This year, fortunately, most of the awards are so clear-cut that voters should be able to make intelligent choices without even referring to the achievement information that accompanies the ballots. But still, there are some notable omissions:

--Stocks Up won the Hollywood Starlet, a major race for 2-year-old fillies on Dec. 4, yet her record is not included among the candidates for that division. The records of three horses who finished behind Stocks Up in the Starlet are listed. Open Mind is a cinch to win this division, but Stocks Up is a possibility to finish second or third in the voting, and that’s important to horsemen, too.

--One of Cutlass Reality’s best races, his victory over Precisionist last Saturday in the Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park, was run too late to be included with the ballots. There is an advisory for voters to keep a few late December races in mind, but no mention is made of the Native Diver. Cutlass Reality won’t beat out Alysheba for best male handicap horse, but he may be runner-up.

--Nastique isn’t listed among the candidates for best female grass horse. Miesque will repeat as champion of this division, based on her win in the Breeders’ Cup, but Nastique’s owners can only hope that voters remember her victory in the Matriarch last Sunday at Hollywood Park if she is to receive honorable mention.

--Pen Bal Lady is one of only a few horses to win three or more major races in 1988, but her first big victory, in the Santa Ana at Santa Anita in March, is missing. Pen Bal Lady won’t outpoint Miesque but, like Nastique, she may get second or third place.

Also, the voters are facing these obstacles:

--Choosing between Shug McGaughey and Wayne Lukas in the trainer competition without having their complete 1988 records. Right now, McGaughey and Lukas are tied for most major victories with 15 apiece. Since the ballots must be received in New York by Jan. 3, a vote mailed on Jan. 1 would not get there in time.

--Choosing between Chris McCarron, Jose Santos and Angel Cordero in the jockeys’ race. Santos currently leads McCarron in total purses, but that could change by Dec. 31.

--Choosing between Sunshine Forever and Great Communicator as best male turf horse. Great Communicator beat Sunshine Forever in the Breeders’ Cup, but many voters feel that Sunshine Forever’s overall record is better. However, a win by Great Communicator in the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup on Dec. 24 would increase his stature. But with only 4 business days between the running of the Turf Cup and the voting deadline, what are the chances that ballots mailed that late would arrive in time?

The powers behind the Eclipse Awards must be assuming that the racing year ends with the Breeders’ Cup. The only way end-of-the-year accomplishments can be recognized is with a later voting deadline. Racing’s top horses and horsemen deserve that consideration.

Trainer Bobby Frankel doesn’t have an Eclipse Awards vote, but he believes that Sunshine Forever should be an automatic choice for the male grass title.

“Sunshine Forever won a lot of stakes (5) and he ran (almost) every week,” Frankel said. “Great Communicator beat Sunshine Forever in the Breeders’ Cup, but (Angel) Cordero didn’t give Sunshine Forever the best of rides.

“If both horses ran in the Hollywood Turf Cup (Sunshine Forever is through for the year), who would be favored? I don’t think there’s any question that Sunshine Forever would be.”

Great Communicator, who has won 5 stakes this year, could tie Sunshine Forever in major wins with 3 if he takes the Turf Cup. Frankel may have a spoiler in the Hollywood race if he runs his Japan Cup winner, Pay the Butler.

When Frankel was just beginning his training career, he worked as an assistant in New York to Howard (Buddy) Jacobson, who led the country in wins for 3 years in the 1960s.

Jacobson, serving 25 years to life in prison for the murder of a romantic rival in 1978, will have an appeal heard by the New York Appellate Court, it was ruled last week. Jacobson’s attorney has produced a witness who had not testified at the trial and he is also challenging some of the state’s evidence--a pair of bloodied jeans--that played a major role in the conviction.

“This is as good as a reversal,” Jacobson said. “It’s the first break I’ve had in all this.”

Houston, the unbeaten 2-year-old colt who cost his owners $2.9 million as a yearling, will not run Sunday in the $1-million Hollywood Futurity.

King Glorious, undefeated in 4 races, will be favored. His only definite opponents are the Craig Lewis-trained pair of Mountain Ghost and Music Merci, the Del Mar Futurity winner, and Hawkster, the Norfolk Stakes winner who must be supplemented into the mile race at a cost of $50,000.

Horse Racing Notes

The team of Clydesdales that has been pulling the starting gate at Santa Anita for the last 9 years will not be there this season. The track’s contract with Anheuser-Busch is not being renewed, because of “economic circumstances beyond our control,” a spokesman for the St. Louis brewery said. . . . More than 1,000 racing-industry leaders attended the University of Arizona’s annual symposium at Tucson last week to discuss what’s wrong with business. One of the things that was wrong was that no copies of the Daily Racing Form were on sale at the hotel.

Bruce Rimbo, one of the editors of QuarterWeek, a weekly quarter horse magazine published in Cypress, will leave early next year for marketing and other management duties at the Woodlands, new side-by-side tracks that will race horses and greyhounds at Kansas City, Kan. . . . Pat Valenzuela, who broke his hand in a jockeys’ room fight with Gary Stevens at Hollywood Park earlier this month, is scheduled to return to action next week and has the mount on Forlitano in the Hollywood Turf Cup.

Owner Fred Hooper says that if Precisionist fails, for the third time, as a stallion, he would consider another return to racing for the horse, who will become an 8-year-old Jan. 1. . . . Trevor Denman, the Santa Anita and Del Mar race caller, called his first dog race, at the Tucson track last week. Denman was worried that he wouldn’t be able to do a good job without his binoculars, until it was explained that the track is about the size of his living room.

At least three tracks--Churchill Downs, Belmont Park and Santa Anita--are seeking the Breeders’ Cup for 1990. . . . Four of the first seven winners of the Hollywood Futurity were supplementals--Roving Boy, Fali Time, Snow Chief and Tejano. Stalwart, who ran in the first Futurity, in 1981, is the only favorite to have won, and he paid $8.20.