Eclipse Finalists announced

[cj]

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/96941/american-pharoah-team-tops-eclipse-finalists

[Kash$]

www.drf.com/eclipsemedia (http://www.drf.com/eclipsemedia)

[cj]

My choices:

Nyquist (though I think Mohaymen is better horse)

Songbird

American Pharoah

Found

Liam's Map (I'd have voted for Effinex personally)

Beholder

Runhappy

La Verdad

Big Blue Kitten

Tepin

(I don't care about people awards, would abstain :) )

[Kash$]

My choices:

Nyquist (though I think Mohaymen is better horse)

Songbird

American Pharoah

Found

Liam's Map (I'd have voted for Effinex personally)

Beholder

Runhappy

La Verdad

Big Blue Kitten

(I don't care about people awards, would abstain :) )

Serling makes a case for Lady Eli thoughts?

[cj]

Serling makes a case for Lady Eli thoughts?

Sad story, but didn't do enough for me when she did run. Tough to top beating older males in the BC Turf.

[cj]

I don't think he was saying she should win, but should have been a finalist for 3yo filly. With that I agree 100%. Had Found not won the Turf, I think she should have won the 3yo filly Eclipse.

[Mandrake]

Very straightforward year horse wise. I hope Cancel gets it. He rode in the tougher colony. Not a Gaffilione fan at all.

[classhandicapper]

The turf/dirt and foreign/domestic comparisons are a little more subjective.

US based turf horses are generally considered inferior to their dirt counterparts and there are already categories that are set aside for the best turf runners (male and female).

The best foreign turf horses are generally considered better than the best US based turf horses (especially this year).

So how much to you discount US based graded wins on turf relative to dirt (if at all) when those horses are in the same category and how much do you discount foreign performances (from zero to fully) for a Euro that only raced in the US once or twice.

There are no hard fast rules. It becomes a matter of personal preference and values. I cast my votes.

[SuperPickle]

Sad story, but didn't do enough for me when she did run. Tough to top beating older males in the BC Turf.

If you dig into who ran behind Found and who ran behind Lady Eli it makes the Lady Eli case REALLY tough.

Lady Eli was amazing but the races come back much weaker. Miss Temple City looked like something but her post Ascot form wasn't what people thought it would be considering she ran second.

[Stillriledup]

Serling makes a case for Lady Eli thoughts?

What's his case?