BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – It turned out the debate for Horse of the Year wasn’t much of a debate at all.
Havre de Grace was a lopsided winner when results for Horse of the Year were announced Monday night at the end of the 41st annual Eclipse Awards dinner here at the Beverly Wilshire. She received 166 of the 248 possible votes among members of Daily Racing Form , the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which includes Equibase.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Havre de Grace on Monday night joined Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta by becoming the third straight female to be named Horse of the Year, a feat never before accomplished in American racing.
Paul Frey, 73, who rode 2,478 winners during a 20-year career from 1953-1972, died Saturday of pneumonia at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif.
Frey won the riding championship in 1964 and 1966 at Longacres Park, where he won the Gottstein Futurity twice and the Longacres Derby twice. He also won six races on a single card on two occasions.
History is expected to be made on Monday night at the 41st annual Eclipse Awards dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., because if Havre de Grace, the perceived front-runner, does in fact make off with the coveted golden trophy for 2011 Horse of the Year, she will become the third consecutive female to win that honor, a feat never before accomplished in American racing.
[WATCH LIVE: 2011 Eclipse Awards - 8 p.m. Eastern on Monday, Jan. 16]
Opus A, under Alan Garcia, ran past heavily favored Lovely Lil at three-sixteenths pole and rolled to a 3 1/4-length victory in Friday’s $75,000 We’ll Sea Ya Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares.
Lovely Lil, the 1-5 favorite who set the pace under Cornelio Velasquez, held second by one-half length over Lady Gracenote. Mineralogist and Lyndsea’s Miss El completed the order of finish.
Opus A won for the fourth time in 11 starts. Three of her wins have come over Aqueduct’s inner track, including the East View Stakes in December 2009, when she bolted and still won.
Stewards at Laurel Park in Maryland have disqualified a horse trained by Richard Dutrow Jr. that finished first in the Dec. 17 Maryland Juvenile Championship because the horse was treated with the anti-bleeding medication furosemide one hour prior to post.
The New York Racing Association on Friday strenuously denied that it has allowed any of the customers of its account-wagering operation to bet on credit in response to a letter from the chairman of the association’s oversight board calling for an investigation into the allegation.
Havre de Grace came out on top in an online fan vote for Horse of the Year conducted by Daily Racing Form and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the two organizations announced Friday. The vote was part of a free-to-enter sweepstakes that required fans to select the horse they felt deserved to win the 2011 Horse of the Year Award, which will be announced Monday in Beverly Hills, Calif., at the 41st annual Eclipse Awards dinner.
