Here’s a Vote for Horse of the Month

One person with a horse-of-the-year vote said facetiously that he was giving a half-vote to Charismatic.

“And the other half?” he was asked.

“Nobody,” he said. “There’s only a half of a horse of the year this year.”

Sure, this is idle banter after Saturday’s wacky Breeders’ Cup Classic, but there’s more truth than fiction to the byplay after the race--the so-called definitive race that didn’t define anything--left 1999 horse of the year really up for grabs. Any of five horses--Almutawakel, Lemon Drop Kid, Behrens, General Challenge and River Keen--could have made a case for horse of the year by winning the Classic, but instead the best any of them could do was finish fifth while Cat Thief, the underachieving 19-1 shot, stole off with the richest race on the card.

As a result, turf writers that have votes and horsemen spent much of Sunday quizzing one another about what to do when the ballots are passed out at the end of the year.

“You guys will do the right thing,” said Wayne Lukas, who trains both Cat Thief and Charismatic, two of at least seven contenders.

Either Lukas is overly optimistic about the voting process or he was giving some of the electorate the big hustle. In the thrill of victory Saturday, he was noncommittal about horse of the year, but at least by Sunday he said this:

“In my heart, there’s only one Kentucky Derby, and that should count double.”

The voters could well interpret that remark as a nudge, because besides winning the Derby, Charismatic also added two-thirds of the Triple Crown by bagging the Preakness. The troubling thing about Charismatic’s candidacy, however, is that he was injured in the Belmont Stakes and retired. Horse of year? He was more like the horse of May, but this is the kind of year when the voters might consider those two races enough to merit the title.

It wasn’t that long ago--1997--when the voters were in a similar quandary. The difference this year is that they have many more options. In 1997, Skip Away won a Breeders’ Cup Classic that had been decimated by injury, but lost support because he had been beaten too many times throughout the year. Gentlemen had good pre-Breeders’ Cup credentials, but didn’t run in the Classic because of injury. In a close vote with Skip Away, Favorite Trick, the undefeated 2-year-old, won the title. He was the first 2-year-old to be voted horse of the year since Secretariat in 1972.

Had Chilukki won Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and completed an undefeated season, she would now be the horse-of-the-year favorite, but trainer Bob Baffert, whose potentially big day turned into a whitewash, saw Chilukki finish second to the Lukas-trained Cash Run. A 2-year-old would virtually need to be undefeated--or the next Secretariat--to be a horse-of-the-year contender, so with Chilukki out of the picture, these are the finalists:

* Cat Thief. Although he won only two of 11 starts this year--the Swaps at Hollywood Park and the Classic--some voters may decide that he still beat the best of the year’s survivors in what is designed to be the championship race.

* Charismatic. His Derby and Preakness wins will be hard to ignore.

* Victory Gallop. Like Charismatic, he won a pair of Grade I races, the Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs and the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga, then was injured and didn’t race after August. Trainer Elliott Walden said even before the Breeders’ Cup that he thought Victory Gallop was the best horse this year. But the horse Victory Gallop beat at Saratoga, Behrens, finished with three consecutive losses, which detracts from the Whitney victory.

* Artax. It seems almost heresy to consider a sprinter for horse of the year, but--again--it’s that kind of a year. Artax tied or broke records that belonged to Dr. Fager, Groovy and Mr. Prospector, but the win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint was only his fourth in 15 starts. Is 1999 such a lackluster year that a horse who was beaten 11 times could be the champion?

* Beautiful Pleasure. She was a convincing winner in the Distaff, which was arguably the toughest race on the Breeders’ Cup card. This was the 4-year-old filly’s third Grade I win since late August. Overall, she had four wins and two seconds in seven starts. “What are the criteria?” assistant trainer Donna Ward asked Sunday. Actually, there are none. “She showed great consistency all year,” Ward said. “She went from allowance company straight into Grade II races, and then moved on to Grade I’s and won. I hope she’s considered.” A title for Beautiful Pleasure would make her the first filly champion since Lady’s Secret in 1986.

* Daylami. “I don’t think so,” said Scotty Schulhofer, who trains Lemon Drop Kid. “He only ran one race in North America.” But it was a corker Saturday--a 2 1/2-length win in the Turf.

* Soaring Softly. Her win in the Filly and Mare Turf, a new race on the Breeders’ Cup card, was her seventh in eight starts, but only her second Grade I victory. A filly and a turf horse winning horse of the year? Those are two pretty big strikes against her.

*

John Lane, a clocker at Gulfstream Park, died of injuries Saturday night, after the races were over, when he fell an estimated 50 feet from the back of the grandstand roof. Lane, in his early 40s, was pronounced dead after being taken to a nearby hospital. . . . Lukas added another notch on his Breeders’ Cup belt with his first Classic victory. While winning a record 15 races, Lukas has won six different Breeders’ Cup races at least once. He still hasn’t saddled a winner in the Turf or the Filly and Mare Turf, which was run Saturday for the first time. . . . The winning pick-six ticket, worth more than $3 million, represents more money than any Breeders’ Cup winning owner has ever gotten. What’s more, the superfecta payoff on the Classic--almost $700,000--is more than any winning owner collected in any of the four $1-million races Saturday.