Horse of Year Honors Go to Point Given

He may have lost the big race, but he wasn’t forgotten when it came to the big vote. Point Given, the strapping chestnut colt that trainer Bob Baffert called “The Big Red Train,” has been elected the 2001 horse of the year, beating out the 2000 champion, Tiznow, by 91 votes.

The announcement was made Monday night at the Eclipse Awards dinner in Miami Beach, Fla., where last year’s champion horsemen and divisional winners among the horses were also introduced.

In balloting by the Daily Racing Form, turf writers and the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., Point Given polled 156 of the 228 votes. Tiznow, who drew 65 votes, had won an unprecedented second Breeders’ Cup Classic in October, but the rest of his year was interrupted by a recurring back injury.

Johannesburg won an Eclipse as the best 2-year-old male, Xtra Heat was voted best 3-year-old filly and Fantastic Light is the champion male on grass. Tiznow won the Eclipse for best older male for the second straight year.

Point Given atoned for a fifth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, his only loss in seven 2001 starts, by ending his career with four straight wins in $1-million races--the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes, the Haskell Handicap and the Travers. For the year, he earned $3.35 million. Overall, he had nine wins and three seconds in 13 starts and earnings of $3,968,500.

Other Eclipse winners announced Monday night were Tempera, 2-year-old filly; Gourmet Girl, older filly or mare; Squirtle Squirt, sprinter; Banks Hill, turf female; and Pompeyo, steeplechaser. Jockey Jerry Bailey won his fifth Eclipse, tying Laffit Pincay’s record; Bobby Frankel repeated as best trainer; Rick Englander won the owner award; Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms won a second award as champion breeder; and the apprentice Eclipse went to Jeremy Rose.

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With Astra, the 9-5 morning-line favorite, scratched because of a rash on her back, Blue Moon squeezed through late in the stretch to beat Queen Of Wilshire by a neck in Monday’s $150,000 Buena Vista Handicap at Santa Anita.

Ridden by Brice Blanc, Blue Moon completed the mile on grass in 1:352/5. The 5-year-old French-bred mare, trained by Ron Ellis, paid $10.60 for $2 in registering her second win in four U.S. starts. Old Money, the 2-1 favorite, finished third.

Before the races Monday, Santa Anita’s three stewards suspended jockey Matt Garcia for 10 days and fined Alex Solis, the track’s leading rider, $1,000 for violations in Sunday’s seventh race.

Bill Christine

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Football

Harold R. “Tubby” Raymond announced he is retiring from the University of Delaware, which plays Division I-AA. Raymond, 75, is ending a 36-year career with the Blue Hens with a record of 300-119-3 and three national titles.

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden promoted two veteran assistants, naming defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews associate coach and running backs coach Billy Sexton assistant head coach.

The Kansas City Chiefs and linebacker Marvcus Patton agreed to a six-year contract. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Tennis

Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia lost in straight sets to qualifier Ivo Heuberger of Switzerland, 7-6 (3), 6-4, in the first round of the ABN Amro Tournament at Rotterdam, Netherlands.... Barbara Rittner of Germany upset fifth-seeded Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan, 6-2, 6-2, in the first round of the Dubai Open at Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Soccer

Nigeria Coach Shaibu Amodu, the first Nigerian to lead a team to the World Cup finals, was fired, less than four months before soccer’s biggest tournament is set to begin. Nigerian sports minister Mark Aku said Amodu and his crew were fired because of the team’s poor performance at the recent African Cup of Nations in Mali when Nigeria finished third.