Columnist Ralph Siraco: Horse of the Year race comes down to the wire

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday, and his Southern California selections run Tuesday through Friday on the scoreboard page. Write to him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 800 S. Valley View Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89107.

Horse racing's elite will honor its own tonight when the annual Eclipse Awards are presented at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Industry leaders and racing celebrities will be in attendance to deal out thoroughbred racing's equivalent of the Oscars. The best of last year's competition in each equine division -- in addition to the human achievements -- will set the table for the night's biggest moment, the presentation of the gold trophy for Horse of the Year.

Jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr. will be presented with a special lifetime achievement award -- and a record sixth Eclipse -- as the sport's winningest rider of all time, a feat he recently accomplished by surpassing Bill Shoemaker on Dec. 10 at Hollywood Park.

This year's Eclipse Awards ceremony will feature a sense of drama leading up to the final trophy and biggest prize, the one to determine Horse of the Year.

And even after the winner is announced, his trophy begins to gather dust on the mantel and the night fades to memory, this Horse of the Year will be debated and argued, as it's the most wide-open selection in years -- if not in the 29-year history of the annual event.

There is not a cut-and-dried or overwhelmingly obvious Horse of the Year candidate for 1999. The criteria for voters is that the horse had to perform during the year -- period.

Accredited members of the Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers Association and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association cast their votes by December 20 with the winners collecting the hardware tonight.

But many members may have wished to pass the ballot when it came to the Horse of the Year honor -- not so much to shun the responsibility as to search out a worthy winner in a year when no standout emerged. In fact, many candidates didn't last to the end of the year. Even the year-end centerpiece -- the Breeders' Cup Classic -- served to cloud rather than settle the issue for the title.

Many other categories, however, were easy to crown.

So, while I bypass the pomp-and-ceremony in Tinseltown tonight -- instead opting for a quiet night of "Big Monday" action here in Las Vegas, as a member of the National Turf Writers Association let me share my votes for this year's Eclipse Awards.

* TWO-YEAR-OLD FILLY: Chilukki. Although the Bob Baffert trainee lost the big race when she finished second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies to Cash Run, the daughter of 1994 Eclipse Award sprint winner Cherokee Run reeled off a half-dozen perfect efforts before her first career defeat. She wins the division for consistency.

* TWO-YEAR-OLD COLT OR GELDING: Anees. While this son of 1990 3-Year-Old Colt Eclipse winner Unbridled had only broken his maiden by the Breeders' Cup, he gave an explosive effort to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. His powerful win coupled with dull efforts by his closest rivals for the category combines a promise that had to be recognized as the best of the division.

* THREE-YEAR-OLD FILLY: Silverbulletday. Like Chilukki, she failed on Breeders' Cup Day, but unlike her Baffert-trained stablemate, she faced an open group of older distaffers in defeat. She beat her own classmates in 8-of-8 encounters on the year and was beaten only by the colts in the Belmont Stakes against her own age. She dominated the division.

* THREE-YEAR-OLD COLT OR GELDING: Charismatic. This one was tricky because Cat Thief, who eventually beat older horses to win the Breeders' Cup Classic, was also in this division. The swing factor was that although this former claimer had a brief career before an injury retired him in the Belmont Stakes, he beat Cat Thief twice, in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, on the square. The rags-to-riches story of this son of 1990 Preakness Stakes winner Summer Squall, and his "comeback kid" rider Chris Antley, got a lot of front-page coverage for the sport as well. Longevity not withstanding, he deserved the award.

* THREE-YEAR-OLD & UP MALE TURF: Daylami. This Irish-bred registered the most impressive performance of Breeders' Cup Day with his demonstrative victory in the Turf. A two-time Group I winner in Europe as well, his one victory stateside coupled with Buck's Boy's failure in the Turf gave this gray the trophy hands down.

* THREE-YEAR-OLD & UP FEMALE TURF: Soaring Softly. Another easy winner for me. She was near-perfect on turf with a 7-for-8 record and won the title-deciding Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, finishing off any possible challenges to her trophy.

* THREE-YEAR-OLD & UP SPRINTER: Artax. It is hard to think a horse could win a title with a record of 4-for-15 on the year, but three of those victories came in a row at the end of the season. Not only did he win the Breeders' Cup Sprint in track-record time, but he also set a new standard at Aqueduct twice, at 6 and 7 furlongs, on the year. No other sprinter came close to his brilliance sprinting last year. Case closed.

* FOUR-YEAR-OLD & UP COLT OR GELDING: Victory Gallop. This is one of those debatable categories. Many will ask how a horse can win the division with only four races on the year. Well, his awesome display in the Grade II Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs coupled with his tenacious photo-finish win in the Grade I Whitney Handicap at Saratoga were enough for me. Sidelined with a career-ending injury following the Whitney, there is no doubt he would have been a force in the division. No other older horse had put two races like those together all year -- period. He also won his comeback effort, then a third-place finish in the Dubai World Cup before his pair of knockout performances.

* FOUR-YEAR-OLD & UP FILLY OR MARE: Beautiful Pleasure. This trophy came down to the title-deciding Breeders' Cup Distaff, where Beautiful Pleasure wrapped up the Eclipse with an outstanding performance by beating her competition convincingly and capping off a three-race Grade I win streak. She dominated the division when it counted -- at the end of the year.

And now the envelope please!

* HORSE OF THE YEAR: Charismatic. Although many other horses could have gotten the vote, I settled on the sophomore who flashed upon the racing scene with the appropriate name to match his character.

Rising from the ranks of claimer -- although he started from an auspicious background -- this guy put together a storybook Triple Crown run that captured the imagination of a country. From his tenacious Kentucky Derby victory to his powerful Preakness Stakes tally, he had John Q. Public thinking about horse racing and had purists wondering if he could be the next Triple Crown winner. His gallant effort in the Belmont Stakes, in which he courageously finished third while sustaining a career-ending injury, epitomizes the very essence of the thoroughbred.

His supporting cast of rider Chris Antley, trainer D. Wayne Lukas and owners Bob and Beverly Lewis -- each with a unique story line -- completed the Hollywood-like plot.

For a brief moment this spring Charismatic was Camelot. And the sport was better served because of it. That's enough to get the Horse of the Year vote in any year.

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