HORSE RACING : Same Old Flaws in Eclipse Awards

When the vote breakdowns for the 1989 Eclipse Awards are announced--supposedly sometime today after a baffling delay--there is a chance that 2-year-old champion colt Rhythm will have received fewer votes than runner-up Grand Canyon.

Now, that might not bother the everyday racing fan. An Eclipse Award doesn’t make a horse run any faster. And it did not appear to faze William T. Young, who owns 75% of Grand Canyon in partnership with trainer Wayne Lukas.

“It was a disappointment,” Young said. “But it was a fair decision. It’s my hope that if our colt does as well this year as we think he can, the fact that he didn’t win the award will be forgotten.”

Young’s magnanimity aside, the Eclipse Awards are supposedly the highest honors in racing, so it is incumbent upon the organizers--the Daily Racing Form, Thoroughbred Racing Assn. and National Turf Writers Assn.--to run them without controversy and announce all results in a timely fashion.

Unfortunately, the awards themselves spring from a system than can best be described as a mutant version of the Electoral College. The simple, democratic ideal of one person, one vote is subverted by a politically manufactured arrangement in which some voters are more equal than others.

When the system works, the Eclipse Awards merely rubber-stamp obvious choices. When the selections are difficult, offering subtle distinctions between candidates, the system almost always fails.

Purists cringe whenever they recall that Exceller was robbed of a turf title in 1978, that Sangue was deprived of any award in 1983, that Smile was considered a better sprinter than Phone Trick in 1986, and that Sacahuista outpolled Personal Ensign in 1987.

The flaws in the system are many. Ballots go out nearly a month before the season ends, virtually eliminating serious consideration of several major December races--Grand Canyon won the Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 17, for instance. Voters are given incomplete and misleading information on which to base their selections. Votes are counted in a manner that defies logic. And these are not new observations.

“The people running it still have to do several things to bring it into the 13th Century,” said William Leggett, a veteran racing writer.

In an attempt to deflect criticism over the early ballot controversy, TRA spokesman Rich Schulhoff noted Tuesday that “80% of the ballots were received after the (Hollywood) Futurity.”

However, Paul Brace of the accounting firm, Poccia & Brace, could not verify the accuracy of Schulhoff’s figure.

“There was no log kept of when the ballots were received,” Brace said. “I told (TRA) that it was my impression about 80% of them came in after that date. But without a log of postmarks, there is no way to know the exact figure.”

Cleaning up the mess over the early ballot controversy is easy. The next step would be a scrutiny of the people who actually do the voting. There were 241 ballots cast this time around--132 from turf writers, 81 from Daily Racing Form staffers and 28 from TRA racing secretaries. Membership is the only requirement.

This differs greatly from the major news service polls. The Associated Press, for instance, closely monitors the weekly ballots cast by the 60 sportswriters and broadcasters who make up the widely reported college football poll.

“We’re always on the watch for regional bias,” said the AP’s John Nadel. “If somebody’s ballot looks ridiculous, like a 2-4 team in the top 20, we’ll give him a call and find out what’s going on.”

Furthermore, even if Rhythm did outpoll Grand Canyon in the popular vote for 2-year-old colt, it does not change the fact that the Eclipse Awards have become hopelessly skewed by the results of the Breeders’ Cup races, long before the season ends.

The selection of Rhythm over Grand Canyon is only the latest in a stream of unconscionable decisions made by a group of voters browbeaten by six years of highly effective propaganda.

They have been led to believe that, for better or worse, a single race makes or breaks an entire season of work. They have bought into the hype of calling the Breeders’ Cup “the Super Bowl of racing,” when in fact it is merely a very rich, nationally televised step in what should be a much greater body of work.

Even Shug McGaughey, trainer of Rhythm, acknowledged some surprise when informed that his colt was the champion, based on his single stakes win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Grand Canyon, who finished second in the Juvenile, went on to win two late season stakes by impressive margins.

Two-year-olds, unlike older thoroughbreds, develop at different rates as the year wears on. Clearly, the Grand Canyon of early November was a different creature from the one who won the Hollywood Futurity in 1:33, the fastest mile ever run by a 2-year-old.

Part of the archaic charm of horse racing is its abject lack of a set schedule for participants. A horse can show up anywhere, at any time, and be perfectly justified in skipping any number of races along the way. Like pro golf or tennis, the main object is winning money--not a single tournament.

Never mind if someone thinks Rhythm is a better horse than Grand Canyon, or vice versa. The way things stand, neither voter can be assured that his choice will not be influenced by a set of factors that must be eliminated before the Eclipse Award voting can be taken seriously.

A bountiful eight of the nine Eclipse Award champions are scheduled to race this season.

Sunday Silence is walking daily under Pam Mabes at Charlie Whittingham’s barn and could go back to the track before the end of the month. Whittingham is confident that his colt will be back to the races in May.

Bayakoa, the champion older mare, is working like a time bomb for Ron McAnally, who may have to run her in the Santa Maria Handicap on Feb. 4, just to let off a little steam.

Brown Bess, the oldest mare to ever win an Eclipse Award at age 7, is getting time off in Northern California. Trainer Chuck Jenda promises another great campaign for his grass star at 8.

Steinlen, the first turf champion trained by Wayne Lukas, is breezing at Hollywood Park, and Open Mind, top 3-year-old filly, is at the Lukas Training Center in Rancho Santa Fe, enjoying a break before her scheduled return this spring.

The 2-year-olds, Rhythm and Go for Wand, are in Florida, preparing for the spring classics, and the Maryland-based sprint champ, Safely Kept, is also scheduled to run again this season.

The only retiree is Blushing John, top older male, who has gone to stud at the Kentucky farm of his owner, Allen Paulson.

Horse Racing Notes

In a wholesale culling that affected nearly every American race track, Sunday’s San Fernando Stakes was among nearly two dozen races demoted from Grade I to Grade II ratings for 1990. The others include the San Antonio and La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita, the American and John Henry Handicaps at Hollywood Park, and the Del Mar Futurity.

Sunny Blossom, who set a track record in winning the Palos Verdes Handicap on Dec. 30, will skip Saturday’s seven-furlong San Carlos Handicap and await the El Conejo Handicap or the Phoenix Gold Cup.

Add Hollywood Derby winner, Live the Dream, to the list of candidates for the San Fernando, whereas Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Prized is considered no more than a possibility by trainer Neil Drysdale.