COMMENTARY / HORSE RACING : A.P. Indy’s Performance in Breeders’ Cup Overshadows Best Pal’s Year

The aftermath of the Breeders’ Cup almost always produces spirited debate about the horse of the year. Last year there were impassioned arguments on behalf of Arazi, Dance Smartly and Black Tie Affair, who ultimately won racing’s highest honor.

But after Saturday’s races at Gulfstream Park, there wasn’t much mention of the subject aside from a little lobbying by trainers on behalf of their horses. Most fans and journalists assumed that A.P. Indy had locked up the Eclipse Award with his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, even though his performance was less than electrifying. Nor has his whole season been overwhelming. A.P. Indy hasn’t had as good a year as Black Tie Affair did last year, and Black Tie Affair was regarded as the weakest horse of the year in decades.

There is such a preoccupation with the Breeders’ Cup in championship balloting that voters sometimes forget that nine months of racing preceded it. As a result, they are ignoring the best American racehorse of the year, and, indeed, the best American racehorse of the 1990s: Best Pal.

The 4 year old raced only five times this year, and his season ended in mid-May because of an injury. But in that time he delivered more truly outstanding performances than any other American thoroughbred--including A.P. Indy.

The humbly bred gelding devastated his opposition in four straight stakes, winning each with a powerful, sweeping move on the turn. And he did it at a time of year when the best American thoroughbreds were in good health and good form. (By the time of the Breeders’ Cup, many of them were out of action.)

He won the San Fernando Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths over Olympio, a brilliant speedster who had won stakes at six tracks the previous season. He won the Strub Stakes over the much-acclaimed Dinard. He ran 1 1/4 miles in 1:59 to win the Santa Anita Derby by 5 1/2 lengths over Twilight Agenda, who had been the second-place finisher to Black Tie Affair in the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Then Best Pal went to the Oaklawn Handicap and overpowered Sea Cadet, who had just won two Grade I stakes by a combined total of more than 10 lengths. His season ended with a loss in the Pimlico Special.

A.P. Indy’s season too was disrupted by injury. He won two important preps for the Kentucky Derby, but was sidelined by a foot problem on the eve of the race. He came back to win a prep for the Belmont Stakes, then captured the Belmont in a fashion that suggested that he was, indeed, the best American 3 year old. “If he didn’t have those little problems,” jockey Eddie Delahoussaye said, “I think you might have seen a Triple Crown winner.”

Nevertheless, A.P. Indy was scoring all of these victories at the expense of a very weak generation of 3 year olds. The second-place finishers in his four stakes wins were Treekster, Bertrando, Colony Light and My Memoirs--horses who would be a good subject for trivia quizzes. After these four victories, A.P. Indy turned in one clunker of a performance, a fifth-place finish in the Molson Million, and then ran third in The Jockey Club Gold Cup after stumbling badly at the start.

Before the Breeders’ Cup, A.P. Indy had no claim to be 1992’s horse of the year. But after this one victory--in moderate time, against a field no better than the ones Best Pal was trouncing--he’s suddenly seen as a shoo-in for the Eclipse Award.

A.P. Indy and Best Pal had rather light campaigns compared to champions of previous years. A.P. Indy won five of seven starts. Best Pal won four of five starts. But there’s nobody else in contention.

Trainer Ron McAnally argues for his admirable mare Paseana--”she’s been the most consistent, she’s carried the most weight, she’s won six Grade I stakes”--but females shouldn’t be able to earn the title simply by beating members of their own sex. Paseana flopped in her only try against males. Trainer Christopher Speckert argues feebly on behalf of Pleasant Tap, who had been the front-runner for the Eclipse Award before the Breeders’ Cup. But the stretch-runner had won only two Grade I’s this year, and he lost fair and square to A.P. Indy.

The race boils down to A.P. Indy and Best Pal, and the only real argument that can be made for A.P. Indy is that he gave his best performance at the time of the year when voters usually make their Eclipse Award decisions. He was, without question, the best horse on Oct. 31. But Best Pal was the horse of the year.