Columnist Ralph Siraco: Skip Away avenges '97 Iselin defeat with win at Monmouth

WHAT A DIFFERENCE a year makes. And, in the great Sport of Kings a year can be an eternity.

An eternity filled with hurdles and unseen hazards in the fickle world of horse racing that has claimed more than its share of great prospects.

The demanding racing schedules and fragile frames that house the power, grace and spirit of the equine athletes make the sport's champions as perishable as a springtime flower.

Keeping that champion in peak condition and at top performance to string victories in graded competition is as sweet as a basket of fresh strawberries and can spoil just as quickly.

Fate is the preservative of destiny, and there is no better illustration on the delicate path of destiny than the fate of Favorite Trick and Skip Away.

Just one year ago, Favorite Trick had won his first Grade I race with a victory in the Hopeful at Saratoga to extend a perfect 6-for-6 career record. Skip Away, on the other hand, was reeling from a loss as odds-on favorite in the recent Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park.

On Sunday, Skip Away returned to the New Jersey shore track to avenge his 1997 Iselin defeat while Favorite Trick ducked the Monmouth challenge to stay at New York's upstate spa and compete in the King's Bishop Stakes against lesser peers at Saratoga on Saturday.

That was then, this is now. Skip Away won, Favorite Trick did not.

In just a year Favorite Trick has become the sport's tarnished Horse of the Year defender and Skip Away is the Superstar that was jilted out of the trophy.

What a 12-month roller-coaster ride it has been.

The road to last year's crown started in earnest after the August performances of the pair. The Breeder's Cup would settle the title on the track.

While Favorite Trick was preparing for the October 18th Grade II Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, Skip Away was girthing up for another encounter with Iselin winner Formal Gold in the September 20th Woodward at Belmont Park. Skippy could not turn the tables on that rival in the Grade I event and prompted trainer Sonny Hine to admit that he couldn't beat his nemesis.

Favorite Trick won the Breeders' Futurity to remain undefeated and would use that victory for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. On the same day at Belmont Park, Skip Away won a Formal Gold-less Jockey Club Gold Cup by daylight and used that Grade I race as a spring board to the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Nov. 8, 1997, Breeders' Cup day at Hollywood Park, and the title would be settled on the track. Favorite Trick drew first blood as the Juvenile event came as 5th race in Breeders' Cup sequence. Favorite Trick turned back the best of the freshmen with a daylight win and ended the year with an unblemished 8-for-8 record.

The ball now in Skip Away's court, the $4 million Classic was the finale on the championship card. Hine had anted up $480,000 to start Skippy, and without an injured Formal Gold or Gentleman, the son of Skip Trail won with resounding authority.

In the end, a 4-for-11 record could not sway the voters who crowned Favorite Trick Horse of the Year on the perfect Juvenile record.

In accepting the bittersweet Eclipse Award for best Handicap Horse of the Year, Hine vowed to make Skip Away the richest horse in the sport's history and get him a deserved Horse of the Year in the process.

Sonny is living up to his promise.

Skip Away started out on that quest in February at Gulfstream Park in the Grade I Donn Handicap. Starting out where he had left off last year, in the winners circle, Skip Away got the jump on favorite Trick.

After accepting the Horse of the Year honors for Favorite Trick, trainer Pat Byrne surprised the racing world by relinquishing his champion to recently inducted Hall of Fame conditioner Bill Mott. While Byrne began his new position as private trainer for the Stronach Stables, Trick was preparing for the Triple Crown trail. But, the change from the Byrne barn to the Mott shedrow didn't have as much impact as the juvenile champion's lack of maturity and stamina.

Pointing toward a Florida Derby start, Trick debuted on Florida Derby Day, but not in the headliner. Capturing the undercard Swale Stakes allowed him to stay undefeated.

Skip Away extended his streak to four consecutive Grade I victories in the Gulfstream Park Handicap on Feb. 28 to complete his Florida dominance.

Favorite Trick suffered his first defeat in the April 11th Arkansas Derby and followed that up with an embarrassing 8th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

In the meantime Skip Away c would have to defend another challenge -- though be it just verbal -- from the connections of Silver Charm. Charm ventured to Dubai to capture the $4 million World Cup and hasn't been the same since.

Skip Away stayed home and rolled in the Grade I Pimlico Special, then returned to annex a second consecutive MassCap in Boston in preparation for a West coast showdown with Silver Charm and rematch with Gentlemen in the Hollywood Gold Cup.

Skip Away showed up, Silver Charm didn't, as he evened the score with Gentlemen in winning the June 28th $1 million Grade I Hollypark centerpiece to stretch his streak to seven, six of which the Grade I variety.

On Sunday, Skip Away showed his heart in a championship performance. Toting high impost of 131 pounds, he gave up the lead to an unlikely Stormin Fever with seventy yards to go and fought back to beat that rival by a nose while spotting him 18 pounds.

Skip Away has now won eight handicap races in a row and is just less than $794,000 short of the all-time earnings record.

Jockey Jose Santos, who rode Stormin Fever, said it best after the race, "Skip Away had to really show his class to come back on and beat me. At the 1/8th pole I thought I was home free."

So did Favorite Trick, Silver Charm, Gentlemen and any other horse who has faced Skippy since Oct. 18, 1997.

What a difference a year makes.

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