It’s Tough to Vote for the Hall of Fame With Blinders On

The Racing Hall of Fame has picked the worst time to restrict the nominations for trainers that are to appear on next year’s ballot.

Instead of a powerhouse ballot that should include any of six newcomers who would receive strong consideration, voters may have to choose from a group of retreads who have been unsuccessful in getting elected in recent years.

Something’s screwy about the whole process. The nominating sheet I received the other day came with instructions that said I can cite one of four trainers who have recently been on the final ballot. Or, I can bypass those four and throw one new name into the hopper.

The returnees--Carl Hanford, Willard Proctor, Buddy Raines and Bob Wheeler--were all accomplished horsemen, but what’s a guy to do when he knows that Wayne Lukas, Sonny Hine, Nick Zito, Richard Mandella, John Veitch and Neil Drysdale, who have never been on the ballot, are now eligible?

I’d like to be a fly on the wall when the Hall of Fame’s nominating committee tries to sort this one out. The final ballot is to include only three names, which means that some sure Hall of Famers aren’t even going to make it this time around.

The ballot used to include five nominees, but because of an ill-advised change, only three will be listed this time. The categories, besides trainer, are jockey, contemporary male horse, contemporary female horse and horse of yesteryear.

Even the jockey category is getting a tad crowded. Russell Baze, Earlie Fires, Ismael (Milo) Valenzuela and Jack Westrope are the holdovers, but a nominator wouldn’t be out of his gourd if he preferred Jose Santos, Mike Smith and Julie Krone instead of some of them. None of the latter three has been on a ballot.

There’s even some question whether Lukas is eligible. The Hall of Fame has a 25-year rule for trainers, which would mean that conditioners who have been on the job since 1974 have enough seniority to qualify. Lukas’ raw numbers--national money titles, Breeders’ Cup wins, Triple Crown victories--are unarguably better than anybody else’s, but his crossover from quarter horses to thoroughbreds has confounded the eligibility police.

Lukas began training thoroughbreds full time in 1978, but while a quarter horse man he was winning an occasional thoroughbred race, at outposts such as Park Jefferson in South Dakota, as far back as 1967. It’s time to give Lukas the benefit of a very small doubt, get him on the ballot and vote him in. Anything else is unconscionable.

A Lukas election this time would leave Hine, Veitch, Zito, Mandella, et al., stuck at the altar. That’s not right. When the Baseball Hall of Fame has a strong ballot, more than one player can be--and has been--voted in. Conversely, there can be years when no player is enshrined. It’s long overdue that racing look at a similar process.

Dick Hamilton already has. Hamilton, who handles publicity for the Racing Hall of Fame, is a voice of reason in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Besides pushing for multiple inductions for the same category in the same year, Hamilton would like to see the Hall of Fame form an old-timers’ committee--as baseball has--to consider qualified horses and horsemen who have been overlooked.

Hamilton uses a favorite of mine, Westrope, as an example.

Realistically, Westrope will never get in through the front door, because most voters don’t remember him and there are too many contemporaries on the ballot whom they see ride every day.

Even Westrope’s raw numbers don’t astound you: He rode 2,467 winners, not an overwhelming total, but this was in an era of less racing. When Westrope died two hours after he bounced off the rail at Hollywood Park in 1958, he ranked eighth overall in victories and ninth in purses. Many who rode against him--Bill Shoemaker, Johnny Longden and Milo Valenzuela among them--say he’s a Hall of Famer.

“In order to elect more than one [horse or horsemen] a year in the same category, we would need a larger voting base,” Hamilton said.

“Baseball has more than 400 voters and even though we’ve added about a dozen West Coast voters [for 1999] to give that section of the country better representation, we’ve still got only a little over 100 voters overall. We might be at least two years away from doing anything like baseball does, but I’d still like to see it happen.”

Voters for the Racing Hall of Fame will vote early next year. The inductees are usually announced in April or May, a few days before the Kentucky Derby, and the enshrinement ceremony takes place at Saratoga Springs in August.

Hamilton has heard the rumors, that Lukas is upset that he has never been on the ballot and might be a no-show if he’s elected.

“I hope the rumors are wrong,” Hamilton said. “But if they aren’t, and Wayne gets in and doesn’t come, that might be a good time to take one of my sick days.”

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Instead of running in the Japan Cup, trainer Noel Hickey will ship Buck’s Boy, the Breeders’ Cup Turf winner, to California to run in the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup on Dec. 12. . . . The second- and third-place finishers, Yagli and Dushyantor, are also expected to run, and other probables are Cetewayo, who was sixth at Churchill Downs, and River Bay, who finished 11th.

Tamarisk, denied a chance to run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint by chairman Lenny Hale’s selection committee, has been voted best sprinter in Europe. “This is for Lenny Hale,” said Harry Herbert, accepting the award on behalf of the syndicate that races the colt. “I will see you at some point. It was a disgraceful, silly decision.”

Silver Charm and Wild Rush will be the headliners when Churchill Downs runs its $400,000 Clark Handicap next Friday. Victory Gallop will not run. He’s being rested for 1999.