There Was Good Reason to Sit This Out

Ten turf writers, an unprecedented number, left their ballots blank in horse-of-the-year voting for 1999.

But there’s no plot for another Oliver Stone conspiracy movie here. The geographical pattern was widespread, and even though two of the abstainers work for the same newspaper, one said he meant to vote.

“I’m hearing about this for the first time,” said Vic Ziegel of the New York Daily News, when reached by phone. “I’m surprised, because I did an entire column on why Silverbulletday should be horse of the year, and that’s who I intended to vote for. If I’m down for a non-vote, it was an oversight. I sent in my [Eclipse Awards] ballot, and thought I had filled it out completely.”

The horse-of-the-year vote was close, but Silverbulletday, while a near-unanimous choice for best 3-year-old filly, drew only 13 votes for the overall title. Charismatic, polling 55 1/2 votes, needed a plurality from two of the three voting groups to win horse of the year, and he had a 13-vote margin from the turf writers and was three ahead on ballots cast by the Daily Racing Form. Daylami, with a two-vote edge from the track racing secretaries, totaled 38 1/2 votes and finished second according to the bloc-voting system.

The 10 who failed to vote didn’t affect the outcome, because they came from the group that gave Charismatic his biggest margin. But their position--more or less, that no horse did enough to merit horse-of-the year honors--is not outlandish, and could give more voters pause if ever there are similar circumstances.

Frank Carlson, who covers South Florida racing for the Blood-Horse magazine, likened his blank horse-of-the-year ballot to some presidential elections, when voters can’t warm up to any of the candidates.

“There should be a ‘none of the above’ designation on the horse-of-the-year ballot,” he said. “I didn’t vote for anyone because I didn’t think there was a horse that deserved it. There wasn’t one horse out there that I really believed in.”

On Breeders’ Cup day in November, Carlson went to Gulfstream Park with the idea of probably voting for Silverbulletday, who was running in the Distaff, or Chilukki, the favorite in the Juvenile Fillies. If either had won, she would have earned Carlson’s vote.

“I don’t like voting for a 2-year-old, because they’re only running against other 2-year-olds,” Carlson said. “But this was a year when you had to consider Chilukki. A Breeders’ Cup win would have given her an undefeated record of seven in a row. But Chilukki and Silverbulletday both ran poorly. Then Cat Thief [a longshot] won the Classic, and that left me with nobody.”

Bill Doolittle, a Louisville freelance writer, said this was the first time he had not voted for horse of the year.

“No horse stood out,” he said. “There were a lot of horses with ability, but none of them had the ability to excite the sporting public. I felt that to vote for any of them would have diluted the award.”

For a few weeks during the Triple Crown, Charismatic quickened racing’s pulse, but after winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, he ran an injury-marred third in the Belmont Stakes, his career ended.

The European invader Daylami built a small following with his convincing win in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but most voters didn’t know how to integrate that lone U.S. victory with his triumphs overseas.

Charismatic’s share of the popular vote--26 1/2%--was the lowest ever for a horse-of-the-year winner and the lowest since Ferdinand’s 38% in 1987. Theatrical, the best male grass horse in ‘87, led one of the three voting blocs, but Ferdinand, after starting the year with six consecutive losses, finished with four consecutive wins, among them the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Ferdinand’s overall record, four wins in 10 starts, was the same as Charismatic’s last year.

“There wasn’t one horse that deserved it,” said Mark Berner of Newsday, another nonvoter. “In my mind, a horse of the year is someone that rises well above and beyond the rest of them. I didn’t think there was one horse that fit that definition this time.”

Three turf writers split their votes, and none of the three split votes had the same combination of horses. In all, 12 horses received votes, surely a record number, and one was Saluter. Yes, Saluter, a 10-year-old jumper who didn’t even finish in the first three for steeplechase horse of the year.

Some of the divisional voting was even closer than horse of the year. For many, older male on dirt was a virtual coin flip between Victory Gallop and Behrens. Victory Gallop won two of the three blocs to take the title, but had only one Racing Form voter gone the other way, Behrens would have been the champion.

Victory Gallop won by a nose the only time they met, in the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga in August, but that was the end of the season for Victory Gallop, who won only one other stakes race all year. Behrens ran all year, winning two Grade I’s and two Grade II’s, before falling apart with a seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“I’m very bitter,” said James Bond, Behrens’ trainer. “The result left me in total disbelief. I’m not saying Behrens is another Cigar or a Skip Away, but [consideration] has to be given to those horses that hang around week after week all year long. You run in one race and you’re a hero. A lot of horses could do that and then not run the whole rest of the year.”

A 6-year-old, Behrens will at least get another chance this year. His campaign may start next Saturday in the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

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Captain Steve, one of the leading early candidates for the Kentucky Derby, shoots for his third consecutive win Sunday in the $100,000 Santa Catalina Stakes. A familiar rival, High Yield, will add blinkers for the 1 1/16-mile race. The field, in post-position order: Woostershear, Captain Steve, The Deputy, Hasty Kris, High Yield and Grey Memo. Captain Steve, who will be ridden by Jerry Bailey, will carry 123 pounds, spotting the others six to 10 pounds.

More Than Ready’s rivals in today’s Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park include B L’s Appeal, American Bullet and Tour The Hive, the first three finishers in the Spectacular Bid Stakes on Jan. 5. . . . Today’s Lecomte Stakes, one of the preps for the Louisiana Derby at the New Orleans Fair Grounds, drew 11 3-year-olds, among them Mighty, who finished second in his last start to Captain Steve in the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs. . . . Joe Bailey has resigned as deputy commissioner of the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., after nine months on the job.