No Clear Favorite for This Eclipse Award

For Eclipse Award voters, the toughest decision on a tough overall ballot regards best 2-year-old male of 2003. It’s unlikely that today’s Hollywood Futurity -- the last Grade I of the year for male juveniles -- will be any help.

If Lion Heart, a heavy favorite, wins at Hollywood Park, trainer Patrick Biancone’s colt would finish the year undefeated in three starts, but he is still not likely to draw much support for the division titleBallots have been in voters’ hands for about a week -- the voting deadline is Dec. 29 -- and because Lion Heart didn’t make his debut until Oct. 24, and didn’t win a stakes race until Nov. 15, his past performances aren’t even listed in the guide that accompanies the Eclipse ballot.

What is more, the Futurity, with only five horses, has come up especially soft, which was the same label that was affixed to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when Action This Day was an upset winner at Santa Anita in October.

Winners of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile almost always win the Eclipse Award as well. The last seven have, and overall 15 of the 19 Juvenile winners have also been voted champions. One of them, Favorite Trick in 1997, also won the horse-of-the-year award. The last time a Juvenile winner missed out on an Eclipse was 1995, when Unbridled’s Song won the race and Maria’s Mon was voted champion.

Action This Day -- whose only pre-Breeders’ Cup win was against maidens -- could fall into the Unbridled’s Song category, although this year’s vote will be so splintered that it would be foolhardy to make book on any of the candidates.

Only two of the contenders have won three stakes races. Cuvee has won a Grade I, II and III, but he ran last -- beaten by 58 lengths -- in the Juvenile. The other Grade I winners this year include Birdstone and Silver Wagon. Birdstone, winner of the Champagne at Belmont Park, ran only two other times and was well back in the Hopeful. Silver Wagon won the Hopeful, his first start after breaking his maiden in his second start, but he was recently beaten at Calder.

Neither Birdstone nor Silver Wagon ran in the Breeders’ Cup. Also missing at Santa Anita were the undefeated Cactus Ridge, winner of the Arlington-Washington Futurity; Ruler’s Court, whose 14-length win in the Norfolk at Santa Anita was the most impressive stakes win by a 2-year-old this year; and Eurosilver, an easy winner of the Lane’s End Futurity at Keeneland in his third start. Ruler’s Court was recently injured in Dubai and his future is unclear.

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On the 2-year-old filly side, the issue is clear-cut, and in fact it would be shocking if any horse other than Halfbridled received a vote. Halfbridled, who had won the Del Mar Debutante and the Oak Leaf earlier, closed out her year with a convincing win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and with her on the sidelines six horses have been entered for Sunday’s Hollywood Starlet, the closing-day feature at Hollywood Park.

Victory U.S.A., third behind Halfbridled in the Breeders’ Cup, won the Mocassin by seven lengths on Nov. 16 and will be ridden in the Starlet by David Flores, who replaces the injured Julie Krone. The field, with jockeys, in post-position order:

Victory U.S.A., Flores; House Of Fortune, Alex Solis; Dixie High, Kent Desormeaux; Hollywood Story, Pat Valenzuela; Rings And Things, Mike Smith; and Rahy Dolly, Jose Valdivia Jr.

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The battle for the jockeys’ title at Hollywood Park tightened up when Tyler Baze won two races and Martin Pedroza had one win. With two days left in the meet, Pat Valenzuela has 24 wins, followed by the recuperating Krone and Baze with 23 each, and Victor Espinoza and Pedroza with 22 apiece.... The trainers’ race is even tighter: Bobby Frankel, Jeff Mullins and Doug O’Neill all have 12 wins. .... After eight years, John Van de Kamp has announced that he’s resigning, effective July 1, as president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California.