Horse Racing : Eclipse Award Voting a Disgrace

The voting for the 1987 Eclipse Awards was a disgrace.

It’s not that a case couldn’t be made for any of the winners--nine horses and five people--who were announced Tuesday, it’s that only 149 of 237 eligible voters cast ballots for thoroughbred racing’s most prestigious honors.

The 149 ballots amount to 63% of the electorate, and although that’s much better than the percentage that might vote in a presidential election, it’s still an embarrassment to the Eclipse program.

The racing Establishment has been harping for years that people outside the sport--such as television executives and newspaper editors--don’t understand it well enough to give it adequate exposure, but judging by the Eclipse vote, those closest to racing aren’t terribly interested, either.

This year’s Eclipse Awards voters included 116 members of the National Turf Writers Assn., 88 staff members of the Daily Racing Form and 33 racing secretaries from most of the country’s major tracks.

The Racing Form had the best response--69%--although in previous years this would have been a low figure for the publication. About 67% of the racing secretaries voted. The turf writers were at the bottom, with only 57%--66 of 116 eligible--participating in the election.

This might have been the lowest voter turnout for the Eclipse Awards since the program began in 1971. Last year, 229 ballots were cast.

The turf writers had fewer eligible voters this year because the organization decided in late November that some of its members lacked the credentials to participate. A purge of the roster resulted in the elimination of about 30 people--some because they had died.

Among the breathing members who were no longer considered worthy to vote were Dave Anderson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist for the New York Times; Vic Ziegel, the executive sports editor of the New York Daily News; and Steve Thomas, a writer for the Blood-Horse, a trade publication in Lexington, Ky.

Both Ziegel and Thomas were upset that they had been eliminated, and Ziegel’s discontent mushroomed into ire Tuesday when he learned how few of his colleagues voted.

“Did I suddenly go from a guy who was smart enough to vote one year to a guy who got stupid about horses?” Ziegel said. “What really gripes me is that I didn’t even get a chance to appeal the action. The guys who ought to lose their vote are the ones who got ballots and didn’t take the time to fill them out.”

Dale Austin of the Baltimore Sun, president of the turf writers, says now that his group might have been hasty in disenfranchising some voters so close to the election.

In the past, Racing Form voters who failed to send in ballots faced censuring from Fred Grossman, the newspaper’s editor. Grossman is no less happy that 27 of his staff members didn’t vote this time.

“Maybe it was because both Christmas and New Year’s were part of long holiday weekends this time and the mail wasn’t reliable,” Grossman said. “But I’m going to contact everybody who didn’t vote and ask for an explanation. If it’s not a good one, they may not find themselves being allowed to vote next time.”

All of the non-voters owe their organizations an explanation and probably an apology. Luckily, no claiming horses won Eclipse Awards and the jockey of the year wasn’t an exercise rider. But some horsemen--three-time Eclipse-winning trainer Wayne Lukas among them--have long been critical of the voting system, and the 1987 debacle will only give them more ammunition.

Six of the nine horses that won Eclipse Awards--Forty Niner, Epitome, Alysheba, Sacahuista, Ferdinand and Miesque--are expected to continue running this year. Champions North Sider, Groovy and Theatrical have been retired.

Sacahuista, however, recently injured a rear leg in a workout at Santa Anita and will be sidelined until at least mid-year.

Jose Santos, who was one of the contenders for the jockey honor won by Pat Day, was penalized because the Eclipse ballots had to be mailed before the year ended.

With Day sitting out most of December, Santos rallied on the final day of the year to beat him out for the national money title by a few thousand dollars, and Santos also won a stake Dec. 31, missing Jorge Velasquez’s record by one race.

Santos must be wondering how the election would have gone had the voters been allowed to consider the final statistics. As it was, Day was voted jockey of the year for the third time in the last four years. Laffit Pincay holds the record with five Eclipses.

New Yorkers are talking about the irony that Day won the jockey award, yet probably cost one of his top mounts, Java Gold, a division championship and possibly horse-of-the-year recognition by what some believe was too conservative a ride in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. Creme Fraiche was allowed to take a leisurely early lead and upset Java Gold by 4 3/4 lengths.

On the other hand, Theatrical wouldn’t have won the Breeders’ Cup Turf--and the male grass championship--without a cool ride from Day. And Epitome, the 2-year-old filly champion, won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and was 3 for 3 under Day; with other jockeys, she was 0 for 5.

Horse Racing Notes Gerry McKeon, the president of Aqueduct, thought that the stewards acted prematurely when they canceled a day of racing because of high winds and cold weather earlier this winter. But McKeon couldn’t argue with their decision to call off the card Wednesday, when the wind-chill factor was 20 degrees below zero.

Leo Bauer, who was the only driver not penalized after a suspicious eight-horse harness race at Yonkers Raceway Nov. 14, told New York state racing authorities this week that Henri Filion, another driver in the race, asked him about his horse before the race and said that he would give Bauer “the numbers” when the two drivers took their horses on to the track. Bauer, whose horse won the race, said that he believed Filion was tampering with the race.

Bauer said that he told Filion he didn’t want to hear anything about the race and that they never talked after they got on the track. Filion drove the favorite and finished fifth in the race, which produced a low triple payoff even though Bauer’s horse won at 18-1.

With Laffit Pincay injured, trainer Eddie Gregson has given Corey Black the mount on Super Diamond in Saturday’s $100,000 San Carlos Handicap at Santa Anita. “I’ve been on the horse about 30 times in the mornings, and it’s paid off now that Eddie’s giving me this break,” Black said. Super Diamond has been assigned high weight of 125 pounds Saturday. Zany Tactics, who’ll try to win the stake for the second straight year, carries 122 pounds, including jockey Jack Kaenel, who replaces Bill Shoemaker after Shoemaker replaced Kaenel and finished third with the horse in the Palos Verdes Handicap.

Chris McCarron worked Alysheba Wednesday and is scheduled to ride at Santa Anita Friday, his first appearance since he underwent leg surgery Nov. 23.