Horse Racing : 3-Year-Olds Win Eclipse by Not Running

More and more, horses that do well in the Breeders’ Cup are the ones that win the Eclipse Awards, but the best way to win a 3-year-old championship seems to be by not running in the Breeders’ Cup at all.

When the results of the voting for the 1988 Eclipse Awards were announced the other day, they showed Risen Star as champion 3-year-old colt. In the 5 years of the Breeders’ Cup, Risen Star is the fourth horse to skip the multimillion-dollar races and still win one of racing’s most prestigious division titles.

The trend started with Swale in 1984, the year of the first Breeders’ Cup. Swale won the Florida Derby, the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, then died, apparently of a heart attack, about a week after his Belmont victory. He was still voted best 3-year-old colt.

The next year, Spend a Buck was retired because of an injury about 2 months before the Breeders’ Cup. Voters decided that Spend a Buck’s wins in the Kentucky Derby and the Jersey Derby were more important than Proud Truth’s victory over older horses in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Proud Truth, who finished third in the Kentucky Derby--the only time he faced Spend a Buck--not only didn’t win the 3-year-old title, but he was also out-voted, 74-40, in the horse-of-the-year count.

In 1986, Snow Chief, who had knee problems, didn’t run after July. But he had already won the Florida and Santa Anita derbies and the Preakness. Ferdinand, the Kentucky Derby winner, and Danzig Connection, the winner of the Belmont, won hardly anything else all year and Snow Chief won the division title.

In the 5 years of the Breeders’ Cup, the only 3-year-old titlist to run has been Alysheba, who finished second to Ferdinand in the 1987 Classic after winning the Derby and the Preakness.

Last year, Risen Star, after running third in the Kentucky Derby and convincingly winning the Preakness and Belmont, was retired to stud with a leg injury. Louie Roussel, trainer and part owner of the horse, was accused of prematurely ending the colt’s career, so his value as a stallion wouldn’t diminish, but Roussel insisted that veterinarians said running the horse any further might result in a serious injury.

The Breeders’ Cup Classic has not been a good bet for 3-year-olds, who by the end of the year should have matured enough to compete against older horses. In the Classic, however, only one 3-year-old--Proud Truth--has won, and 16 others have tried.

With Risen Star the exception, 8 of the 9 Eclipse Award winners for 1988 ran either first or second in the Breeders’ Cup.

Alysheba, Personal Ensign, Miesque, Gulch and Open Mind won last November at Churchill Downs. Sunshine Forever, Winning Colors and Easy Goer finished second.

Of the 9 Eclipse winners, 4 will be back on the track this year. Naturally, they include the top 2-year-olds--Easy Goer and Open Mind--plus Sunshine Forever and Winning Colors.

Miesque, winner of the female grass division, is the first horse to win successive titles in the same category since John Henry took the male turf championship in 1983-84.

It will be extremely difficult for a future Eclipse winner to duplicate the method used by Miesque. The French filly ran only twice in America, won the Breeders’ Cup Mile both times and was voted the award.

Some voters were uncomfortable picking a horse with only 1 race each year in the United States, but Miesque has been so clearly the best, while beating males, that it would have been unfair to vote for any other horse.

Alydar, who never won an Eclipse Award, paying the penality for being a contemporary of Affirmed, sired two of the 1988 winners--Easy Goer and Alysheba. Previous champions sired by Alydar were Turkoman and Althea.

Goodbye Halo finished second in Eclipse voting for the second straight year. In 1987, she finished behind Epitome in the 2-year-old filly division, and this time she was runner-up to Winning Colors for best 3-year-old filly.

It’s no big deal, because nobody remembers who the runners-up were, anyway, but Cutlass Reality and Olympic Prospect deserved higher ratings by the Eclipse voters.

Cutlass Reality, fourth in the balloting for best older male, was 1 of only 2 horses to beat Alysheba last year, but had the stigma of being a West Coast horse, a negative that grew when he finished seventh in the Breeders’ Cup.

Olympic Prospect didn’t even finish in the top four in the voting for sprint champion. Voters must have forgotten his California accomplishments after he faded in the stretch and wound up fourth in the Breeders’ Cup.

But Mining finished even farther back in the Breeders’ Cup and still finished second in the voting to Gulch, the winner at Churchill Downs.

Play the King and Afleet, second and third, respectively, in the Breeders’ Cup, ran third and fourth in the voting, even though their overall records were inferior to Olympic Prospect’s. Play the King didn’t win a race outside of Canada and Afleet won just 1 race all year.

Horse Racing Notes

Annoconnor, second to Miesque in the Eclipse voting for females on grass, may run Saturday in the San Gorgonio Handicap at Santa Anita. She’s been assigned top weight of 122 pounds. Continued rain at Santa Anita could force the race off the grass, however, and that would make Annoconnor a doubtful starter, even though she won the Vanity Handicap on dirt at Hollywood Park last year. . . . Ogden Phipps is the first horseman to win the owner and breeder awards in the same year since Louis and Patrice Wolfson took both honors, primarily because of Affirmed, in 1978. . . . A California jockey has won the Eclipse Award only once in the last 7 years. Laffit Pincay took the title in 1985. . . . The 9 Eclipse Award-winning horses in 1988 won 48 of 73 starts and earned $13.6 million. . . . Miesque and Easy Goer were the only winners who weren’t millionaires. Only two champions lost more than they won, Winning Colors going 4 for 10 and Gulch being 5 for 11. . . . Alysheba and Gulch will begin their stud careers at Will Farish’s Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky. Other Eclipse winners standing there are Spend a Buck, Manila and Tasso.