THOROUGHBRED RACING : Horse-of-Year Candidates Varied Lot

Thoroughbred Racing Communications, which conducts a weekly poll assessing the best horses in North America, had its final vote of the year a couple of days after the Breeders’ Cup.

Of the 40 votes cast, Black Tie Affair got 23, Dance Smartly 10 and Arazi four. Two voters had In Excess on top and Farma Way received the other first-place vote.

As far as the Eclipse Award for horse of the year is concerned, the poll proves nothing, because some of the TRC voters don’t receive Eclipse ballots, which will go out to about 300 turf writers, track racing secretaries and Daily Racing Form representatives in December. To win the title, a horse must receive a majority of the votes from at least two of the three voting blocs.

If the three Eclipse groups support different horses, then the popular vote determines the champion. In 1984, John Henry won his second national title on popular vote, and the tie-breaking method is a possibility again this year because of the developments on Breeders’ Cup day at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2.

Black Tie Affair, Dance Smartly and Arazi won their races, but In Excess and Tight Spot were beaten, and Farma Way didn’t run because of an ankle injury. The contenders that remain have never run against one another, and they are as unlike as Cher and Beverly Sills--Black Tie Affair, a 5-year-old handicap horse; Dance Smartly, a 3-year-old filly; and Arazi, a 2-year-old colt.

The choice is more difficult because all three candidates have holes in their records, which may seem contradictory in the case of Dance Smartly, who used the Breeders’ Cup Distaff for her eighth victory without a loss this year.

The problem some voters may have with Dance Smartly, however, is that the males she defeated in four races in Canada were largely second-rate. The fillies Dance Smartly beat on her home tracks were even weaker, but for the Breeders’ Cup she marched into Kentucky and defeated a better grade of distaffers with as much ease as she had won races in Canada.

Pat Day, who rode Black Tie Affair to three stakes victories and who was aboard Dance Smartly for her last six victories, would seem to be well-qualified to assess those two horses.

“I rode Lady’s Secret and I’ve ridden this filly,” Day said. “I think that Dance Smartly has done more this year than what Lady’s Secret did the year she was horse of the year (1986).”

That would seem like an unofficial vote from Day for Dance Smartly as horse of the year, but jockeys are, by the nature of their jobs, political creatures. When they discuss horses, their judgments are shaded by occupational considerations. They are loath to cross an owner or a trainer, because there may be other good horses in the same barn that they could ride. Dance Smartly is going to run some more next year and may even wind up in the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Black Tie Affair’s victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic sent him off to a stud career.

Black Tie Affair didn’t lose a race after May, running up six consecutive victories over five tracks. Before the streak, he beat Housebuster, who could be champion sprinter for the second consecutive year. In September, Black Tie Affair won the Iselin Handicap, beating Farma Way in a stiff stretch drive, and two weeks later beat Summer Squall in the Washington Park Handicap. Then, in the Classic, he knocked off two Kentucky Derby winners, Unbridled and Strike The Gold, besides accomplished horses such as Twilight Agenda, Fly So Free, Festin, Marquetry and Summer Squall.

A deeper look, however, makes Black Tie Affair’s record troublesome. The Farma Way he beat is a horse who didn’t win after May. The Classic didn’t have a “now” horse in the field: Festin, the lukewarm betting favorite, had an in-and-out record of three victories in 10 starts this year; Summer Squall, the second choice, hadn’t won a major race since the 1990 Preakness; Unbridled had won only one stake since winning the 1990 Classic and Strike The Gold was winless in six tries since his victory in this year’s Derby.

So Black Tie Affair did beat the best of what remained from the 1991 battles. But his record is not unlike that of In Excess, another well-managed horse who has been discounted by many horse-of-the-year voters because his trainer, Bruce Jackson, went for the Breeders’ Cup Mile on grass instead of the Classic, then watched as his colt faded to ninth place.

Even the what-have-you-done-for-us-lately school of voting ought to consider that In Excess’ record is still superior to Black Tie Affair’s. In Excess won five of eight starts, had victories on both coasts and registered four major triumphs in New York. Black Tie Affair only ran in four major races, winning two. His streak included such not-so-classic stakes as the Stephen Foster, the Michigan Mile (which is actually 1 1/8 miles) and the Cornhusker Handicap.

One Eclipse voter said that picking Arazi as horse of the year is a “no-brainer.” But some voters will be reluctant to pick a champion based on only one race, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, no matter how stirring the performance.

Arazi’s six consecutive victories before that were in Europe. His instant adjustment from turf to dirt and from courses that run clockwise to one that has left-handed turns is part of his strength, but technically voters are not supposed to consider European form. This is impossible, of course.

In 1983, when another French horse, All Along, was voted North American horse of the year, voters couldn’t blank out her victory in the Arc, but that was never an issue. All Along crossed the Atlantic at the end of the year and blew the doors off this continent’s best grass horses in three races in Canada, New York and Maryland. Arc or no Arc, she did enough to take the North American title.

This vote for 1991 is going to Dance Smartly, though not with a lot of conviction, and Black Tie Affair probably will win. It hasn’t been a year for clear-cut decisions.

A couple of weeks before the Breeders’ Cup, Dance Smartly’s handlers thought about running her in the Classic. Too bad they didn’t. In a year in which Eclipse voters need all the eye-openers they can get, that would have helped a little.

Horse Racing Notes

There are so many trainers wanting to run horses in Sunday’s Hollywood Derby that the race will be split into two divisions, each worth $200,000, which would have been the purse had the stake been run as only one race. . . . Among the Europeans on hand for the 1 1/8-mile grass race is Sillery, who ran second in the Budweiser International at Laurel. . . . The list of locals includes General Meeting, who has won his only two grass races, and Olympio, winner on dirt of the Arkansas, Minnesota and American Derbies.

Quest For Fame, who was 57-1 when he ran third, behind Miss Alleged and Itsallgreektome, in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs, is expected to run in the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup on Dec. 15. . . . Itsallgreektome, winner of last year’s Turf Cup, is expected to run again, and may also run in the Citation Handicap on Nov. 30. . . . Salt Lake, winner of the Cowdin, the Hopeful and the Tremont Stakes in New York, heads a field of six Saturday in the Hollywood Prevue Breeders’ Cup Stakes at seven furlongs. Others entered are Star Of The Crop, Whatcom Warrior, Seahawk Gold, Renegade King and Cape Royale.