Skip Away Wins in a Runaway

In 1997, Skip Away won the Breeders’ Cup Classic but was beaten out by the 2-year-old Favorite Trick for horse-of-the-year honors. In 1998, Skip Away was beaten in the Breeders’ Cup, but won the title by a landslide as voters recognized his seven-race winning streak through the first nine months of the year.

Skip Away, as a 5-year-old campaigned by Carolyn Hine and her husband, trainer Sonny Hine, collected 193 votes, almost 83% of the 233 cast. Finishing a distant second, with 34 votes, was Awesome Again, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic and undefeated in six starts, but a horse who ducked many of the big races. Skip Away won five Grade I races, including a trip West for the Hollywood Gold Cup; Awesome Again won only two Grade I’s.

According to Eclipse Award election rules, the winner must get a plurality of votes from two of the three blocs, and Skip Away dominated all three. He received 121 of the 142 turf writers’ votes, 46 of 55 from the Daily Racing Form and 26 of 36 from track racing secretaries. One ballot apparently didn’t list a choice for horse of the year.

The only other horses considered were Silver Charm, who got five votes, and Real Quiet, who was named on one ballot. Real Quiet, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness before he was nosed out by Victory Gallop in the Belmont, won an Eclipse for best 3-year-old male. His trainer, Bob Baffert, was voted champion trainer for the second consecutive year. Awesome Again’s owner, Frank Stronach, who bought Santa Anita in December, won the Eclipse for champion owner.

The winners were honored Tuesday night at a dinner in Bal Harbour, Fla., not far from where the Hineses bought Skip Away as an unraced 2-year-old for $30,000 in 1995. They received a rebate of $7,500 the next day when X-rays showed that the Florida-bred son of Skip Trial and Ingot Way had a chipped ankle.

“I bought Skippy’s sire for $25,000,” Sonny Hine said earlier this year. He had chips in two ankles, and they didn’t bother him.”

Time healed Skip Away’s ankle, and he finished his four-year career with 18 wins in 38 starts, his purses of $9,616,360 second only to Cigar’s $9,999,815. Because Skip Away wasn’t eligible, Carolyn Hine supplemented him into the 1997 Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park for $480,000. He won by six lengths, earning $2.1 million. But Favorite Trick went undefeated in eight starts, becoming the first 2-year-old to win horse of the year since Secretariat in 1972.

The 1997 supplemental payment also covered Skip Away in the 1998 Breeders’ Cup, but the race was at Churchill Downs, a track he never liked. In a race reminiscent of his 12th-place finish in the 1996 Kentucky Derby, Skip Away ran sixth in the Classic.

He lost the race before that too, but earlier in the year, he shipped around the country and was unstoppable. The season began in Florida, continued through Maryland, Massachusetts and California, and the last two wins in the streak came in New Jersey and New York.

The Hineses said they turned down a $20-million offer for Skip Away early in 1998. Skip Away’s career as a stallion began this month at Hopewell Farm near Midway, Ky., where his stud fee is $50,000.

Jerry Bailey, who rode Skip Away in all of his races last year, missed on a fourth consecutive Eclipse Award for jockey when Gary Stevens was named on 164 of the 234 ballots that were cast. For Stevens, who was voted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1997, this was an Eclipse that was long overdue. He led the country in purses with $19.3 million, despite missing almost two months because of surgery on both knees, and rode Silverbulletday and Escena, who also won titles. Silverbulletday, champion 2-year-old filly, was the easiest winner, getting all the votes in her division except one that went to stablemate Excellent Meeting. Escena outpolled the undefeated Sharp Cat, 135-94, in the voting for best older female.

Mike Pegram, who owns two of the champions, Real Quiet and Silverbulletday, finished second to Stronach in the voting for owner.

“That’s all right,” Pegram said. “Two out of three in any sport ain’t bad. The only way I’ll ever win an Eclipse Award is if they give one for having the most fun.”

Other division winners were Skip Away, best older male; Answer Lively, 2-year-old male; Banshee Breeze, 3-year-old filly; Buck’s Boy, male on grass; Fiji, female on grass; Reraise, sprinter, and Flat Top, steeplechaser.

In a vote by a committee, John and Betty Mabee of San Diego won champion breeder for the third time. The Mabees, who breed horses at their Golden Eagle Farm in Ramona, Calif., and in Kentucky, also won the breeding award last year and in 1991. The only previous three-time winner of the award has been Nelson Bunker Hunt, in 1976-1985-1987. In 1998, the Mabees bred horses that earned $8.2 million.

Shaun Bridgmohan was voted best apprentice jockey.

The Oak Tree Racing Assn. received a Special Eclipse Award. The nonprofit Oak Tree group, which leases Santa Anita for a fall meet, has contributed almost $13 million to the thoroughbred industry.

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Track Record

Skip Away’s 1998 record: *--*

Starts First Second Third Purses 9 7 0 1 $2,740,000 Date Track Race Fin. *Margin Feb. 7 Gulfstream Donn 1 2 3/4 Feb. 28 Gulfstream Gulfstream 1 2 1/4 May 9 Pimlico Pimlico 1 3 1/4 May 30 Suffolk Mass. ‘Cap 1 4 1/4 June 28 Hollywood Gold Cup 1 1 3/4 Aug. 30 Monmouth Iselin 1 Nose Sept. 19 Belmont Woodward 1 1 3/4 Oct. 10 Belmont Jockey Club 3 10 1/4 Nov. 7 Churchill Classic 6 4

*--*

*Winning margin or distance in lengths behind winning horse.

ECLIPSE AWARD WINNERS FOR 1998:

Horse of the year--Skip Away

2-year-old male--Answer Lively

2-year-old female--Silverbulletday

3-year-old male--Real Quiet

3-year-old female--Banshee Breeze

Older male--Skip Away

Older female--Escena

Grass male--Buck’s Boy

Grass female--Fiji

Sprinter--Reraise

Steeplechase--Flat Top

Owner--Frank Stronach

Breeders--John and Betty Mabee

Trainer--Bob Baffert

Jockey--Gary Stevens

Apprentice jockey--Shaun Bridgmohan