Vic Zast

Given how Eclipse Award voters think, it’s almost certain that Barbaro – the Kentucky Derby winner whose heroic exploits riveted a nation in 2006 - won’t capture the accolade that history will remember when the polling results are announced on Jan. 22. 

The title Horse of the Year – the 36^th such designation of equine supremacy -- will fall to Invasor, the Breeders’ Cup Classic champion, not to Barbaro, the charismatic colt that captured America’s number one horse race by the largest margin in 60 years before breaking down two weeks later in the Preakness Stakes.

A fact-fixated electorate, composed of representatives of the Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers Association and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, has been accustomed to passing over a thoroughbred’s impact on the public when passing out year-end honors.

Aside from being wooed by an occasional trade press ad or an editorial endorsement, the voters cast their ballots influenced solely by the past performances, and often on the most recent past performances at that. In this sterile manner, they determine which horses the record books will recall not with their hearts, but with the port side of their gray matter.

Barbaro won only four races in 2006, but so did Invasor. But  because Invasor defeated all that were moving when the Breeders’ Cup Classic was run, his excellent record -- although tainted by defeat in the spring -- will be held in higher esteem than Barbaro’s, which is tarnished only by season-ending trauma.

Barbaro, since almost fully recovered from his injury, as well as three other horses deserving of Eclipse Awards will be overlooked for shortsighted reasons.  At least, they are reasons that are arguable.

Here, then, is the list of predicted 2006 Eclipse Award winners, and the horses that should win but won’t.

STEEPLECHASE

Horse that will win: McDynamo.

McDynamo, a 9-year-old gelding, encountered little challenge in overwhelming a modestly-talented field of five in his fourth Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase Stakes victory. He later annexed the prestige-laden Colonial Cup at Camden. In the sport of horse racing, where the clock runs out too early for many of its stars, McDynamo is a Benrus.

Horse that should win: McDynamo.

2-YEAR-OLD MALE

Horse that will win: Street Sense.

This Carl-Nafzger trainee beat both Circular Quay and Scat Daddy, the only other challengers for the 2-year-old title, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Although he bypassed the tough preps leading up to the World Championships, Street Sense left a lasting impression by using a speed favoring rail to his advantage en route to a dominating win in his seasonal finale. 

Horse that should win: Street Sense.

2-YEAR-OLD FEMALE

Horse that will win: Dreaming of Anna.

This undefeated filly, from a relatively unknown barn in Illinois, beat the boys, won on turf and dirt, at 4 1/2f furlongs and 1 1/16 miles, on four different racetracks, in Canada and in the United States. There’s not much more that one could ask of a champion, now is there?

Horse that should win: Dreaming of Anna