When Is The Best Not the Best?

It's about this time of the year in horse racing- year end award time! The Eclipse Awards, as they're known, honor the best in racing. One of these awards, for 2yo Male, generally goes to the winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile by default. Most of the time, this makes sense- 2 year olds only run for half the year at most, and don't have as many opportunities to run in big races. The Juvenile, as such, carries much more weight than other BC races.

This year's winner is overwhemlingly likely going to be New Year's Day, the winner of the BC Juvenile. Is he the best 2 year old, however? Probably not.

Going into the Juvenile, New Year's Day's resume was pretty skimpy, with only a maiden win to his credit. With the Juvenile field not coming up very strong, he was sent off at the moderate price of 10/1. He won by sneaking up a ridiculously clear rail to practically ensure an Eclipse by default.

However, one could make the case the actual best 2 year old male in the country wasn't even at the race. Honor Code, who will be running in the Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct in about 2 weeks, broke his maiden at Saratoga by closing from an incredible 23 lengths back. In the Champagne Stakes, he was extremely wide going into the stretch, only to miss by a short neck. His connections, however, decided to pass up the Juvenile out in California, instead keeping him on the East Coast.

The horse who beat him in the Champagne, Havana, stylishly broke his maiden at Saratoga, too, and was the favorite in the Juvenile. He finished second, while on a fast pace and wide, losing much more ground than New Year's Day.

OK, well, if New Year's Day might not be as good as some of the east coast 2 year olds, surely he's the best of the west, right? That might not be true either.

This Sunday at Hollywood Park, Shared Belief won the Hollywood Prevue Stakes in dominating style. He stalked the leader, shook off the challenge of the heavily hyped Kobe's Back, and won by an impressive eight lengths. He's scheduled to run next in the Cashcall Futurity at Hollywood- a race New Year's Day's people have little interest in- so he could pad his resume even further.

So, even though New Year's Day might not be in the top three of two year olds in terms of raw ability, he'll walk away with an Eclipse Award, and promptly be rewarded with a whole lotta hype going into next year. Such is the way the world turns, I suppose.

-John Piassek