Like the Super Bowl, these races decided championships
January 27th, 2015
Comparing horse racing with football, or any other sport for that matter, is the proverbial apples vs. oranges debate. To the chagrin of some racing fans with fanciful notions, no one race has ever, or can ever, solely determine Horse of the Year every year. Some might wish, for example, that the Kentucky Derby or Breeders' Cup Classic were definitive in that respect, but the vagaries of racing require a larger body of work to be considered rather than just a single performance.
Another unique feature of racing is that Horse of the Year is often based not only by what the winners themselves have done, but is also the result of the shortcomings of his/her main rival(s) for the honor in other races.
The following is one person's opinion of which races in the Super Bowl-era (1966-2014) more or less solidified Horse of the Year honors for the individual winners.
1966 - Woodward (Aqueduct) BUCKPASSER, who defeated dual classic winner Kauai King handily in the Arlington Classic earlier, likely clinched top honors here, the second of his three stakes triumphs against older horses. A later win the Jockey Club Gold Cup was pure gravy.
1967 - Woodward (Aqueduct) The "Race of the Century" turned into an anti-climactic exhibition when DAMASCUS won by 10 lengths over Buckpasser, with Dr. Fager a half-length farther back in third.
1968 - United Nations (Atlantic City) A neck victory in his only start ever on turf, while toting 134 pounds, gave DR. FAGER a third divisional title (DRF's grass award) to go along with the older male and sprint championships he had essentially clinched with his world-record mile in the Washington Park Handicap.
1969 - Woodward (Belmont Park) Having beaten Majestic Prince by a larger margin in the Belmont than that rival had beaten him combined in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, ARTS AND LETTERS beat TRA older male champion Nodouble for a second time here. A third win over that rival, by 14 lengths, followed in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
1970 - Washington D.C. International (Laurel) FORT MARCY got the DRF's approval after this victory, which established him as one of the greatest turf horses in the world. It capped an impressive three-race win streak that included the United Nations and Man o' War.
Woodward (Belmont Park) A split award this year as the TRA went traditional (i.e. dirt) and voted for three-year-old champion PERSONALITY after beating a not-terribly deep group of older rivals.
1971 - Hollywood Gold Cup (Hollywood Park) ACK ACK carried 134 pounds and set all the fractions in this 1 1/4-mile event (:45 2/5, 1:09, 1:34 1/5, 1:59 4/5) en route to an easy 3 3/4-length score. He never raced again, but had already done enough in the first 6 1/2 months of the year to secure older male and sprint titles.
1972 - Garden State (Garden State Park) A prescient selection by voters who recognized a giant in the making. SECRETARIAT did Secretariat-like things here as a two-year-old in one of the richest races at the time, impressing voters more than La Prevoyante's 12-for-12 record against juvenile fillies and Key to the Mint's respectable three-year-old campaign. The latter's Horse of the Year claims seemingly crashed when he lost by 15 lengths to Autobiography in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, even though he had beaten that rival three times previously.
1973 - Belmont (Belmont Park) SECRETARIAT...by 31 lengths!
1974 - Vosburgh Handicap (Aqueduct) FOREGO clinched an unlikely sprint title here to go along with an older male crown he had more or less secured with win in the Woodward over 1 1/2 miles in his previous start. After this triumph going seven furlongs, he promptly stretched back out to two miles (!) and won the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
1975 - Woodward (Belmont Park) After dropping two straight to the three-year-old Wajima while conceding weight on the scale both times, FOREGO finally got the better of his younger rival at scale weights in this 1 1/2-mile showdown. Wajima's candidacy took a lethal hit when he unexpectedly dropped the Jockey Club Gold Cup in Forego's absence.
1976 - Marlboro Cup (Belmont Park) FOREGO solidified his legendary status with a remarkable, patented rundown of three-year-old rival Honest Pleasure in this 1 1/4-mile handicap.
1977 - Belmont (Belmont Park) SEATTLE SLEW completed a Triple Crown sweep while Forego did just enough later in the year to claim a fourth divisional title as champion older male.
1978 - Belmont (Belmont Park) AFFIRMED's narrow Triple Crown sweep over arch-rival Alydar was remembered more than his two losses to Seattle Slew in the fall.
1979 - Jockey Club Gold Cup (Belmont Park) A clash of titans resulted in AFFIRMED winning by three-quarters of a length over Spectacular Bid.
ADVERTISEMENT
