Photo: NYRA, Adam Coglianese
The Eclipse Awards
recognize the outstanding performances for 2012 and I wanted to share some
highlights and the best comments from the year-end ceremony.
Wise Dan became the first horse since John Henry in 1981, to win three Eclipse Awards in
a year. Owner Morton Fink said, “I owe a lot to this horse because something
that makes me so happy helped to keep an 83 year-old man alive a little
longer.”
His trainer, Charlie
LoPresti talked about what a durable and hard-working horse Wise Dan had been
all year. After the win in the Breeders’ Cup Mile Lopresti’s nephew said, “Why
don’t we put the bridle back on and run right back him in the Classic.”
Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai
also won three Eclipse Awards. His Godolphin Stable won the Owner Award, his
Darley Stable took the top Breeder, and Questing squeaked out the Eclipse for Three Year-Old Fillies in the closest vote 106-102
over My Miss Aurelia. The Sheikh’s representative Jimmy Bell said that, “All of
their grade one winners, except It’s Tricky, would be back to race in 2013.”
Steven Crist of the Daily
Racing Form, who amazingly has never won an Eclipse Media Award, introduced Handicapper
of the Year, Michael Beychok. Beychok, who won the 2012 National Handicapping
Championship by $1, has made a commitment to the care of thoroughbreds once
they are done racing. He actually claimed and retired the horse that won the
NHC for him and said that, “Ten percent of his 2013 NHC winnings would go to
thoroughbred aftercare.”
Groupie Doll won the
Female Sprinter award and her co-owner described racing as, “the Sport of
Dreams, not the Sport of Kings.”
Trinniberg won the Eclipse Award for Male Spinters. The horse is owned and trained by Shivananda
Parbhoo, who brought his family to the USA from Trinidad and Tobago said, “This
is unbelievable. All we ever wanted was to win one stakes race.”
Dale Romans won his first Trainer of the Year Award over perennial powerhouse
trainers Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher. Romans got 119
votes compared to Pletcher’s 87 and Baffert’s 35. In 2013 Romans’ horses won over $11.8 millions in purses, so
after the ceremony I asked Romans for his top moments from this award-winning
year.
He began with Dullahan’s
victory in the Pacific Classic over Game On Dude, “People thought I was crazy
sending an out of form three year-old all the way to the west coast to run
against older horses.”
Next Romans mentioned the great season of one of
his favorite horses Tapitsfly. The
four year-old filly won three graded stakes in her four year-old season.
Third on his list were the amazing victories of Little Mike in the Arlington Million
and Breeders’ Cup Turf. Romans described Little Mike as, “a horse from a no
name sire (Spanish Steps) and a throwaway mare (Hay Jude).”
Romans saved his favorite for last and he clearly
got the most emotional when he recognized Shackleford’s
final victory in front of so many friends and family in the Clark Handicap. He
said that that win was “the highlight of my career, nor just the year.”
As Romans went up to the stage to accept his
Eclipse I waited for an interesting speech from the charismatic trainer. He may
have gotten the biggest response from the audience at this Awards ceremony when
he said, “No matter what the New York
Times says, this is still the greatest sport.”