Lukas Eclipsed by Cigar’s Mott for Top Award

Is this something that happens every eight years? Trainer Wayne Lukas wins more big races than anybody, leads the country in purses and doesn’t win an Eclipse Award.

It happened in 1988, and it has happened again in 1996. When the voting results for last year were announced last Thursday, Lukas had finished a close second to Bill Mott, who repeated as the winner of the training award.

This time, in what might have been the tightest trainer vote, Mott outpolled Lukas, 123-112 1/2. And, actually, the election was even closer than that.

Turf writers, track secretaries and the Daily Racing Form vote for the Eclipse Awards, and total votes don’t determine the winners. To win, a horse or a horseman must get a plurality from at least two of the three voting blocs, and in this case Mott beat Lukas by 2 1/2 votes. This was the breakdown:

Mott-Lukas

Racing Form: 44-50

Secretaries: 20-6

Turf writers: 59-56 1/2

The turf writers were the biggest bloc with 147 voters. They cast 31 1/2 votes for trainers other than Mott or Lukas, and if only three of them had voted for Lukas, that would have been enough to change the outcome.

Mott, who orchestrated Cigar’s 10 for 10 year and a horse-of-the-year campaign in 1995, was considered a shoo-in for the ’95 award, but there was less likelihood that the electorate would vote the straight Cigar ticket in 1996. Cigar won only one race after July, while the Lukas barn cruised to its 13th money title in the last 14 years.

Lukas’ purse total was $15.9 million, to Mott’s $14 million, and in Grade I races the count was 13-6 in favor of Lukas. Lukas won the Kentucky Derby with Grindstone and the Belmont Stakes with Editor’s Note, giving him seven wins in the last eight Triple Crown races. Boston Harbor, who won an Eclipse Award as the best 2-year-old male, also won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, giving Lukas his 13th Breeders’ Cup victory.

Asked about the Eclipse vote, Lukas said, “I’m getting accustomed to it.”

For another opinion, the Racing Form polled its readers, and thousands sent in make-believe Eclipse ballots. They agreed with most of the official voting, and for best trainer, Lukas finished even farther back. The final count was Mott 1,600, Lukas 810.

Horse Racing Notes

There will be a memorial service for Frank “Jimmy” Kilroe after the races at Santa Anita today. Kilroe, the retired vice president for racing at the track, died in November. . . . Cigar became the first repeat winner of the Eclipse Award for older males since Forego’s three- year run in 1974-77. Cigar can also become the first back-to-back winner of the horse-of-the-year award since Affirmed in 1978-79. That announcement is scheduled for Feb. 4.

Red and Thisnearlywasmine, horses returning from layoffs, are two of the eight 3-year-olds entered for Saturday’s $100,000 San Miguel Stakes. Red blew a shoe and cut his foot while winning the California Sires Stakes at Santa Anita in October. Thisnearlywasmine will run for the first time since finishing second to In Excessive Bull in the Hollywood Prevue in November. Others running in the six-furlong San Miguel are Latin Dancer, Beep Me, Renteria, Milliondollardana, Magnificent Marks and Smokin’ Mel. . . . Other stakes this weekend are Sunday’s $125,000 San Gorgonio Handicap and on Monday the $125,000 El Encino and the $150,000 San Marcos Handicap. Sandpit, who hasn’t run since a third-place finish in the Arlington Million in August, is a probable for the San Marcos.