Leonard Lavin, the beauty-supplies magnate whose Glen Hill Farm has bred more than 80 stakes winners, has been selected to receive the Eclipse Award of Merit, an honor created in 1976 to recognize a “lifetime of outstanding achievement” in racing.
Lavin, 96, is the 40th individual to be selected for the Award of Merit, considered by many to be the highest honor in racing. He will receive the award Jan. 16 at the Eclipse Awards dinner at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
The heavy responsibility of deciding who gets an Eclipse Award falls upon the shoulders of 282 voters who received e-ballots this week. As one of them, I clicked the appropriate prompts and discovered, much to my delight, that a wave of memories welled up, not unlike Proust’s involuntary flood of remembrances unlocked by the nibble of a madeleine cookie dipped in tea.
“No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me,” he wrote in Swann’s Way.
La Verdad, among the leading filly and mare sprinters in the country, was disqualified from her victory in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss at Saratoga, and her trainer, Linda Rice, will serve a 15-day suspension as a result of the horse testing positive for clenbuterol, New York racing regulators announced on Saturday.
The Eclipse Awards dinner is set for Jan. 16 at Gulfstream Park, which means the sponsors have less than two months to figure out a way to make it exciting. Right now, the event figures to provide about as much drama as the 1998 Academy Awards.
Best Picture? “Titanic.”
Best Director? “Titanic.”
Best score, sound, cinematography, editing? “Titanic,” “Titanic,” “Titanic,” “Titanic.”
My “L.A. Confidential” never had a chance.
Organizers of the Eclipse Awards have made changes to the awards’ voting criteria to emphasize that horses who have made all or most of their starts on turf should no longer be eligible to win the champion older male or older female Eclipse Awards, the organizers said Thursday.
Under new guidelines going into effect for 2015, the criteria for the starts that will be considered in both older male and female categories “will be limited to dirt or main-track races,” the organizers said. “Main-track” in this case refers to artificial surfaces.
Imagine his surprise the other night when Jay Robbins was sitting at home in Carlsbad, Calif., not far from Del Mar, innocently enjoying the broadcast of the Eclipse Awards on HRTV and getting a kick out of California Chrome being named 2014 Horse of the Year.
As the Chrome crew made its way to the stage to accept the golden trophy, led by trainer Art Sherman and co-owner Steve Coburn, Robbins heard broadcast announcer Larry Collmus introduce the newly crowned champion as “the first-ever California-bred to win the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year.”
How soon they forget.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Bayern, California Chrome, and Main Sequence will be the focus of attention at the 44th annual Eclipse Awards on Saturday night here at Gulfstream Park, as they will vie for Horse of the Year and are in line for divisional titles, too.
Bayern and California Chrome are two of the finalists for champion 3-year-old male, and the winner of that division could very well secure Horse of the Year, too. Shared Belief is the other finalist for champion 3-year-old male.
Chad Brown said he’d be wearing his tuxedo, just in case. As a first-time finalist for outstanding trainer, Brown figures it’s best to put a good foot forward Saturday night at Gulfstream Park when the industry convenes for the Eclipse Awards dinner, advertised as black tie optional at $400 a pop.
“It’s not something you set out to do, win an Eclipse Award,” said Brown, 36. “I’m not even sure how the voting works. I don’t know, do I even have a shot?”
Hats off to the 29 horses and 14 individuals who separated themselves from the crowd in 2014 and ended up Eclipse Award finalists, as announced far and wide Wednesday.
At this point, and for purposes of harmless publicity, they all shall be considered equal under the Eclipse Award banner, even though some are certainly more equal than others. If you don’t think so, check out the seating chart for the dinner at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 17.
Barbara D. Livingston, the chief photographer for Daily Racing Form since 2008, has been named the recipient of the 2014 Eclipse Award for photography, the organizers of the awards announced Tuesday.
Also named as Eclipse Award winners Tuesday were freelance writer John Scheinman for feature/commentary writing and Joe Clancy, the editor of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred, in the news category.
