THOROUGHBRED RACING / BILL CHRISTINE : Eclipse Award’s Shortcomings Are All Too Real

A not-so-funny thing happened to Kotashaan on his way to the 1993 horse-of-the-year title.

The French-bred horse almost blew the election.

What looked like a shoo-in for Kotashaan turned into a tight vote. In balloting for the divisional awards, Kotashaan swept to the male grass title, receiving the support of all three voting groups while outpolling Lure, 150-107. But then when horse-of-the-year ballots were counted, only two of the three groups favored Kotashaan, and he wound up edging Lure, 116-101.

Had four track racing secretaries voted for Lure instead of Kotashaan, racing would have faced an embarrassing result: Lure would have won the horse-of-the-year title even though he finished second in the grass division. And Lure would have been the champion even though Kotashaan had polled the most votes. Neither of those aberrations has occurred in the 23-year history of the Eclipse Awards.

Eclipse Voting is unlike most sports elections, resembling the Electoral College system that determines the nation’s President. Total votes mean less than a horse’s ability to dominate at least two of the three voting groups. Theoretically, a horse could win a title without finishing first in total votes. The system was established when the Eclipse program began in 1971. There is a significant disparity in the number of voters within each sponsoring group, and the National Turf Writers Assn., the Daily Racing Form and the racing secretaries from Thoroughbred Racing Assns. tracks all wanted equal representation.

They are blameless for that, but the system’s shortcomings almost came into play this time. To make an analogy with college basketball, Kotashaan losing out to Lure for horse of the year would have been like a school winning the NCAA tournament and not being voted No. 1.

Kotashaan lost the Daily Racing Form’s vote to Lure, 41-38, but won the title when the turf writers voted for him, 65-53, and the racing secretaries supported him, 13-7. Thirty-four of the voters that supported Kotashaan for male grass horse didn’t like him for horse of the year. At best, their reasoning is puzzling. At worst, it is unbelievable. Perhaps they didn’t think the grass division was that formidable, even though many veteran horsemen have said this was the best collection of turf horses in racing history.

Whatever their reasons, 49 of the 266 voters, or 18%, didn’t like Kotashaan or Lure for horse of the year. Now that’s astonishing.

Nine of them voted for Star Of Cozzene, and they deserve the benefit of the doubt because Star Of Cozzene beat Kotashaan and Lure twice each. Overall, Star Of Cozzene paid the penalty at year’s end for not running in the Breeders’ Cup and then finishing fifth in the Japan Cup while Kotashaan ran second.

Improbably, 20 voters liked Bertrando for horse of the year. Bertrando was the best horse North America had on dirt in 1993, but won only 33% of his starts. Had he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic instead of finishing second, his supporters could have made more of a case,.

There were seven votes for Hollywood Wildcat, the 3-year-old filly. Once she became trainer Neil Drysdale’s responsibility in California last summer, Hollywood Wildcat went undefeated, but never ran against males, and in the balloting within her division, 65 voters thought that Sky Beauty, the New York filly, was the better horse.

Arcangues, Paseana and Sea Hero each received three horse-of-the-year votes. Arcangues won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, at 133-1, but won only one other race all year. Paseana, a two-time Eclipse divisional winner, couldn’t outfinish Hollywood Wildcat in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and was beaten in three of her last four races. Sea Hero, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Travers, was winless in seven other starts and finished second to Prairie Bayou, a horse that died in June, in the voting for best 3-year-old colt.

Peteski, Dehere, Brocco and Holy Bull received one horse-of-the-year vote apiece. Did those voters tune out around the first of October? Peteski was Canada’s horse of the year, but couldn’t win in this country. The 2-year-old colts Brocco and Holy Bull didn’t even win their division, Brocco because he was beaten in the Hollywood Futurity after winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and undefeated Holy Bull because he didn’t run in the Breeders’ Cup. Dehere, the juvenile champion in a split vote with Brocco, finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup by 12 1/2 lengths.

This was only the third time that there was a split among the voting groups for horse of the year. In 1984, John Henry edged Slew O’ Gold. In 1982, in the closest election of all, the turf writers liked Conquistador Cielo; the Racing Form favored Lemhi Gold, and the racing secretaries went for Landaluce. At that time, voters listed first, second and third choices on their ballots, and Conquistador Cielo won the championship because he fared better in the runner-up spots.