Does Accelerate now win HOY over Justify?

[bobphilo]

Accelerate deserves to be HOTY but the voters will likely play to the ignorant masses who are not racing fans and only are interested in the Ky Derby and the other Triple Crown races if their is a TC at stake, and elect Justify. The problem is these people don' care or even know about the Eclipse Awards, so their will be an injustice for no reason. Even if they do care, this will only justify the belief that racing only matters for a couple of months each year (pun intended).

[classhandicapper]

These awards are subjective.

Should you be voting for the best horse, the horse that accomplished the most, should speed figures matter, whose speed figures, should it be mostly about Grade 1 and other Graded victories, should you include trips if you believe a certain horse was way better than he/she finished in a significant race, does heads up count more, does longevity of campaign count, do foreign races count if the horse raced in the US also, do turf races count for the non turf categories, if yes, do they count as much as dirt races, do 3yo Grade 1s count as much as open races etc...

There are no rules.

[Andy Asaro]

Twitter

[classhandicapper]

It's an interesting debate.

I think Accelerate was the better horse, but Justify may have been the more talented horse. We just didn't get to see him develop because even at the end he was still very lightly raced and IMO possibly not 100%.

Both had amazing campaigns in terms of accomplishments, but both took advantage of some very weak fields in their division along the way.

I still haven't made up my mind.

I wonder what the odds line would be on who wins?

[BaBaBooey]

Justify - Triple Crown Winner - 'nuf said

[Andy Asaro]

Twitter

[cj]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

It's an interesting debate.

I think Accelerate was the better horse, but Justify may have been the more talented horse. We just didn't get to see him develop because even at the end he was still very lightly raced and IMO possibly not 100%.

Both had amazing campaigns in terms of accomplishments, but both took advantage of some very weak fields in their division along the way.

I still haven't made up my mind.

I wonder what the odds line would be on who wins?

Justify 1-5
Accelerate 6-1
Monomoy Girl 50-1

(No takeout)

[v j stauffer]

Post #142 in this thread. My first.

Justify today named #16 in ESPN's Dominant 20! for 2018.

Nobody that works at ESPN, with the possible exception of Kenny Mayne, has ever heard of Accelerate.

Meaning

Justify 99.8%

Accelerate 0.1%

Asaro 0.1%

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by v j stauffer

Post #142 in this thread. My first.

Justify today named #16 in ESPN's Dominant 20! for 2018.

Nobody that works at ESPN, with the possible exception of Kenny Mayne, has ever heard of Accelerate.

Meaning

Justify 99.8%

Accelerate 0.1%

Asaro 0.1%

Quite true, but that is exactly a demonstration of how sick our sport is. The only way we get attention is if a horse wins 3 restricted stakes and if he or she does, it doesn't matter if the horse has a 6 race 5 month career with no real accomplishments whatsoever.

[bobphilo]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

Quite true, but that is exactly a demonstration of how sick our sport is. The only way we get attention is if a horse wins 3 restricted stakes and if he or she does, it doesn't matter if the horse has a 6 race 5 month career with no real accomplishments whatsoever.

I agree. This poll says lot more about the ignorance of horse racing of ESPNs staff than it does about who should get HOY.

Regardless of who one supports for HOY, anyone who has never even heard of Accelerate doesn't know shit from shinola about horse racing and their opinion means nothing.

[bobphilo]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

It's an interesting debate.

I think Accelerate was the better horse, but Justify may have been the more talented horse. We just didn't get to see him develop because even at the end he was still very lightly raced and IMO possibly not 100%.

Both had amazing campaigns in terms of accomplishments, but both took advantage of some very weak fields in their division along the way.

I still haven't made up my mind.

I wonder what the odds line would be on who wins?

HOTY should go to the horse that has actually accomplished more against all comers in open competition throughout the year. It has nothing to do with what promise a young horse has shown it may someday achieve if it meets open competition. Justify would be a good candidate for most promising newcomer award this year if such an award existed.

[GMB@BP]

Originally Posted by bobphilo

HOTY should go to the horse that has actually accomplished more against all comers in open competition throughout the year. It has nothing to do with what promise a young horse has shown it may someday achieve if it meets open competition. Justify would be a good candidate for most promising newcomer award this year if such an award existed.

You just excluded pretty much all three year olds and female horses.

[cj]

Originally Posted by bobphilo

HOTY should go to the horse that has actually accomplished more against all comers in open competition throughout the year. It has nothing to do with what promise a young horse has shown it may someday achieve if it meets open competition. Justify would be a good candidate for most promising newcomer award this year if such an award existed.

This is the subjective part. There are no guidelines sent with the ballot. One person sees the Triple Crown as JV quality, others see it as the pinnacle of the sport. I'm somewhat torn on my vote. But the more I look at the quality of the competition Accelerate beat, including in the Classic, I think he might be fool's gold. The only horse he beat all year that was G1 quality in my opinion was City of Light, and that one was in a race much too far for that horse.

[aaron]

Originally Posted by cj

This is the subjective part. There are no guidelines sent with the ballot. One person sees the Triple Crown as JV quality, others see it as the pinnacle of the sport. I'm somewhat torn on my vote. But the more I look at the quality of the competition Accelerate beat, including in the Classic, I think he might be fool's gold. The only horse he beat all year that was G1 quality in my opinion was City of Light, and that one was in a race much too far for that horse.

Has a Triple Crown Horse ever not won HOY ? I think Seattle Slew vs Forego was close. Unfortunately for racing CJ has pointed out how weak and uninspiring the handicap division has become. Are there any real G1 horses anymore ?

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by cj

This is the subjective part. There are no guidelines sent with the ballot. One person sees the Triple Crown as JV quality, others see it as the pinnacle of the sport. I'm somewhat torn on my vote. But the more I look at the quality of the competition Accelerate beat, including in the Classic, I think he might be fool's gold. The only horse he beat all year that was G1 quality in my opinion was City of Light, and that one was in a race much too far for that horse.

Let's suppose Justify loses the Preakness by a nose.

Now who gets HOTY, him or Accelerate?

So basically running a half length faster made the difference?