#el deal- never 4get

[rideonruffian]

2017 Eclipse Award Selections

Champion Sprinter

1. Roy H

2. Mind Your Biscuits

3. Imperial Hint

4. Ransom the Moon

5. Sharp Azteca 

The breakout runner Roy H won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, which makes him 5/6 this year, with his other wins including the Santa Anita Sprint Championship and True North Stakes. His lone loss came in the Bing Crosby Stakes, with many believing he would have won it if not for a loose Drefong running his own race. Roy H’s Championship crowning will make a fitting reward to Rockingham Ranch (and David Bernsen) who lost top campaigners in the San Luis Rey Downs Fire.

Mind Your Biscuits won the Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan earlier in the year in impressive closing fashion, along with the Belmont Sprint Championship. He finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and second in the Cigar Mile and Gulfstream Park Sprint Stakes. He flopped in the Forego, however, the race won by Drefong.

Like Roy H, Imperial Hint only lost once, and he came into the big picture a bit later in the year. Before the BC Sprint, Imperial Hint competed in lower level stakes races, winning the Gr.III General George at Laurel Park, Gr.III Smile Stakes at Gulfstream Park, Fire Plug Stakes at Laurel, and Donald Levine Memorial Stakes at Parx. The son of blue-collar stallion Imperialism is set to be a top sprinter in the coming years.

Ransom the Moon, a son of Malibu Moon, won the Gr.II Kona Gold Stakes before capturing a controversial Gr.I Bing Crosby. He also finished second in the San Carlos Stakes. Like Roy H and Imperial Hint, he seems to have come into his own as a five/your year old. I rate him higher than Drefong because he finished better than him in the BC Sprint, while also going to post more: Drefong made three starts in 2017, winning once, fading in another, and throwing his jock in the first. Ransom the Moon made 6 starts with three wins and a runner-up effort.

Sharp Azteca is a bit of a wild card here, as he seems to be more of a miler than a sprinter. A demon at one turn, he might even be able to stretch out a bit longer. Sharp Azteca defeated Mind Your Biscuits in the Cigar Mile.  

Honorable Mentions go to Defrong, the Champion Sprinter from 2016 who only won once this year, Danzing Candy, who looked to be a top sprinter this year after capturing two graded stakes before he was injured and retired, and Whitmore, who won 4 stakes- 3 graded- this year. Also a shoutout to El Deal, for he won the Alfred G. Vanderbilt this year before being retired for basically no reason.