The Veterans of the Season Awards; Part I

If you will recall, in my very first post on this blog I stated that every three months we would hold an official vote to determine the winners of the "Veterans of the Season" awards. For those of you who do not remember the details, please refer to the bottom section of my original post. Here is the link:

http://veteransoftheturf.blogspot.com/p/veteran-geldings-fan-club.html

A few notes on the categories -- the sprinters' divisions include any races at seven furlongs or less, the miler division any race at 7.5 - 8.5 furlongs, and the marathoner divisions any race nine furlongs or longer.

To be eligible for an award, the gelding in question must be a member of our Veterans of the Turf Club and have raced between January 1st, 2011 and March 31st, 2011.

Now, due to the fact that the number of members in our VOTTC is still rather small, and that they haven't competed too many times this year, we will be combining some of the categories together for our inaugural awards.

So the list of awards which we shall vote on are thus:

Champion Sprinter
Champion Miler
Champion Marathoner
Veteran of the Season
Most Courageous Performance

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for -- the voting procedure. The eligible geldings in each category are:

Champion Sprinter

Horse	Starts	First	Second	Third	Earnings
Chamberlain Bridge	1	1	0	0	$45,000
Cost of Freedom	1	0	0	3	$22,000
Garden Dancer	5	2	1	0	$5,110
Quick Enough	4	1	1	0	$82,000
Silver Timber	1	0	0	0	$3,750

Champion Miler

Horse	Starts	First	Second	Third	Earnings
Dubious Miss	3	0	1	1	$33,910
Furthest Land	2	1	1	0	$53,840

Champion Marathoner

Horse	Starts	First	Second	Third	Earnings
Dubious Miss	3	0	1	1	$33,910
Interpatation	4	0	1	0	$15,860
Presious Passion	1	0	0	0	$12,000
Rahy's Attorney	2	1	1	0	$120,000

(Note that the number of starts, wins, earnings, etc. reflect only their performances during the months on January through March. Also note that the other two categories -- "Veteran of the Season" and "Most Courageous Performance" -- are open to any member of our Veterans of the Turf club.)

Here's a quick rundown of what they've accomplished this year:

SPRINTERS

Chamberlain Bridge - won the Rail Splitter Stakes at Sam Houston with a quick late run.
Cost of Freedom - Finished third, beaten a head, in the Sunshine Millions Sprint Stakes after setting an unbelievably fast pace.
Garden Dancer - Won two $2,500 claiming races at Beulah Park, along with a second and two off-the-board finishes.
Quick Enough - Won the Spectacular Star Handicap, finished second in the Daytona Stakes, sixth in the Sunshine Millions Sprint Stakes, and eighth in the Al Quoz Sprint (UAE-II).
Silver Timber - Finished a close fourth in the Turf Dash Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

MILERS

Dubious Miss - Finished second in the Colonel E. R. Bradley Handicap (gr. III) and fifth in an allowance optional claiming race.
Furthest Land - Won an allowance optional claiming race and was third in another allowance race.

MARATHONERS

Dubious Miss - Finished third, beaten a head, in the Fair Grounds Handicap (gr. III).
Interpatation - Finished second in an allowance optional claiming race and off-the-board in two similar events and the grade II San Luis Obispo Stakes (gr. II).
Presious Passion - Finished fifth in the Sunshine Millions Turf Stakes.
Rahy's Attorney - Won the Pan American Stakes (gr. III) and finished second in the Mac Diarmida Stakes (gr. II).

Who you vote for depends on what you value most. Do you prefer to vote for horses that have won races, or horses that performed admirable in stakes races? That is what will make these awards so interesting.

So without further ado, here are my votes for each category:

Champion Sprinter - Garden Dancer
Champion Miler - Dubious Miss
Champion Marathoner - Rahy's Attorney
Veteran of the Season - Rahy's Attorney
Most Courageous Performance - Cost of Freedom

I feel that Garden Dancer's two victories and a second, even though they were in cheap claiming races, top the performances of Cost of Freedom and Chamberlain Bridge, my other two selections.

On the other hand, I feel that Dubious Miss' second in the Colonel E. R. Bradley Handicap was more impressive than Furthest Land's two allowance races, and shall therefore vote for him.

In the Marathoner category, Rahy's Attorney was the obvious selection, as not only was he the only eligible gelding to have won a race, it was a grade III stakes and he was also second in a grade II. These two strong performances also earned him my vote as the Veteran of the Season.

Finally, Most Courageous Performance goes to Cost of Freedom, who ran an unbelievable race in the Sunshine Millions Sprint to finish third, beaten a head. I mean, he ran a :42.72 half-mile! And he tried so hard to hang on in the stretch, leading with just a few yards left to run before missing in a three-way photo finish. He earned the award, in my opinion.

But your votes are just as important as my votes. To cast your selections, please leave a comment stating your picks below. The polls close at 12:00 AM EST on April 23rd. I shall announce the results on the 24th.

-Keelerman