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SID FERNANDO
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IS like is endangered nowadays. I was jolted by thoughts of this while watching the HRTV broadcast of the Eclipse Award ceremony from Gulfstream Park on January 18. Wise Dan was the equine star of the evening, a “people’s horse” in the same way as Curlin. He, too, is a two-time Horse of the Year and top older horse, plus top turf horse. But Wise Dan is a gelding, and he’s by the unheralded Wiseman’s Ferry. And he’s a turf miler – the weakest division of North American racing. Never since the advent of the Eclipse Awards in 1971 has a turf miler been acclaimed the best horse in the country until Wise Dan in 2012. Turf Horses of the Year are rare to begin with, but even the three before Wise Dan – John Henry (1981 and 1984), All Along (1983), and Kotashaan (1993) – were winners at a mile and a half. Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a denouncement of Wise Dan, who’s a high-class champion. Bred by his octogenerian owner Morton Fink, who also owned a piece of Wiseman’s Ferry, Wise Dan has been trained impeccably by Charlie LoPresti to target the Breeders’ Cup mile each year. He’s been an excellent advertisement for the game as a veteran, a fan favorite who performs at a high level and wins consistently, and the antithesis of the flash-in-the-pan youngster sent to stud without earning his stripes. But his success also means that dirt horses haven’t been making the grade. Certainly not the intact males, anyway. Consider: With Wise Dan’s two-year Horse of the Year reign, together with those of fillies or mares Rachel Alexandra (2009), Zenyatta (2010), and Havre de Grace (2011), five years have elapsed without an “entire” Horse of the Year since since Curlin in 2008 – which happens to be the year that the bloodstock markets, which inflated stallion values, collapsed. Perhaps this is its symbolic manifestation of revenge? It’s the same story since 2008 in the best older horse category, a division traditionally
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Why are intact, older male dirt champions such a rare breed? The question: When was the last time an intact male horse was voted Horse of the Year? The answer: 2008. The horse: Curlin, a son of leading sire Smart Strike. Curlin also won the award in 2007. On the racecourse he was a strapping matinee idol that represented the North American breeding establishment’s one-time beau ideal: The well-bred classic-winning stallion prospect who stayed a mile and a quarter on dirt against top company and raced past the age of three. reserved for dirt runners. Besides Wise Dan, the turf and all weather stayer Acclamation won the award in 2011 and the turf horse Gio Ponti won in 2009. Altogether, these three – incredibly! – didn’t win a single dirt race in four championship seasons from 2009 to 2013. Blame, a well-bred and late-maturing staying son of Arch who defeated Zenyatta in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, was the exception in 2010 as champion older horse. Why haven’t dirt horses been making the grade? Here’s my simple deduction: North America has been breeding and selling “short” horses for a while now, and by this I mean the prototypical early maturing types that are best suited for racing at two and three at up to distances of a mile and a sixteenth or a mile and an eighth – the ubiquitous stakes distances at most tracks. By the time horses reach age four,
“This overall weakness on dirt, fueled by the need for quick returns, has afforded turf and all weather horses – generally later-maturing types with stamina – the opportunity to succeed”
it seems like only the second stringers are around unless a rare Blame or Zenyatta surfaces to pick up the slack. This overall weakness on dirt, fueled by the need for quick returns, has afforded turf and all weather horses – generally later-maturing types with stamina – the opportunity to succeed. Turf-bred Derby winner Animal Kingdom, by a Brazilian sire and out of a German dam, is an example. So too is Kitten’s Joy. A son of El Prado owned by the 2013 Eclipse Award-winning breeders and owners of the year Kenneth L. and Sarah K. Ramsey, Kitten’s Joy was a mileand-a-half winner and the champion male turf horse of 2004. He was not a commercial prospect by any means when he went to stud, yet he accomplished the improbable feat of leading the general sire list in 2013 as a predominantly turf and all weather stallion, which is every bit as subversive as a turf miler being crowned Horse of the Year and best older horse. Two days after the Eclipse broadcast, The Jockey Club announced that FOX Sports 1 would be broadcasting “The Jockey Club Tour on FOX,” a series of nine races meant to highlight some of the most “prestigious races for older horses.” Apparently scheduling conflicts kept some Grade 1 dirt races out of the mix, but would you believe that only one of the nine events announced was for older males on dirt? That just about reflects our new reality. n