Steven Crist

Here is the complete tally of first, second and third-place votes cast for the 2010 Eclipse Awards, as discussed in the Sunday column. Points are awarded on a 10-5-1 basis for voters' top three choices in each category (i.e., in the Horse of the Year voting, Zenyatta received 128 first-place votes for 1,280 points, 93 second-place votes for 465 points and 12 third-place votes for 12 points, a total of 1,757 points):

HALLANDALE BEACH -- Someone from DRF had to leave pry himself away from beautiful, balmy New York to do a seminar at Gulfstream Park today and I drew the short straw. Neither sunny skies, 85-degree weather nor an excellent card of racing and betting could deter me. For those of you who coudn't join me in the Sport of Kings room a couple of hours ago, here's what I said about playing the 50-cent pick-5 today, a sequence that includes three Grade 2 Stakes -- the Davona Dale, Hutcheson and Fountain of Youth:

The three graded stakes on the dirt at the Fair Grounds last Saturday all were run at a mile and a sixteenth, and the final times stacked up about the way you would have expected: The older males in the Mineshaft Handicap (1:43.45) ran faster than the 3-year-old males in the G2 Risen Star (1:43.98), who ran faster than the 3-year-old fillies in the G3 Rachel Alexandra (1:45.13).

12:20 pm: Thanks to 73-1 and 59-1 winners in Thursday's sequence, there's a $172,736 carryover in the 50-cent pick-5 at Gulfstream Friday. It looks very tough but let's take a shot. Four of the five races are on the turf, ranging from a five-furlong sprint to a 1 7/16th-mile allowance race, and no morning-line favorite is lower than 3-1. Here's the sequence, which after early scratches would require a $59,800 investment at the 50-cent minimum to buy every combination (9x12x10x10x12):  

Only 48 hours until the first Kentucky Derby Futures pool opens? Okay, I guess it really IS time to take down the holiday decorations and get tied on for the rites of spring.