Vote now in TTimes Best of 2010 poll!

The annual Best of poll that my employer has done in each of the past three years has become a really fun exercise.

There are the standard questions every year, of course—best horse, best race—but we've also asked some fun questions about simulcast analysts, racinos, and this year we've added a social media component.

We try to choose our words carefully when asking the questions. We ask "best horse" rather Horse of the Year or champion of a particular division because A) we want the question to be more internationally inclusive, and B) we see "best" as allowing someone to choose a horse based on talent more than accomplishment.

Eskenderya, for instance, will not be champion three-year-old male, but it wouldn't be a stretch to pick him as best three-year-old to race this year based on what he showed when he did race. That said, I picked Lookin At Lucky.

Some of the questions are interesting not for who will "win" but who finishes second or how close the vote will be. I'd be shocked if anyone but Zenyatta won "best horse" but the vote for second I think will be interesting.

I voted for Goldikova. She won the race her connections had pointed toward all year while Zenyatta did not.

For "best two-year-old" I think our readership skewing North American will tip the scales in Uncle Mo's favor, but it will be interesting to see how close the vote is. I picked Uncle Mo.

It's impossible to think any horse except Goldikova will be "best turf horse", and Gio Ponti is most likely the pick for America's best turf horse, but I went with Winchester since the latter won the head to head match up in two races I consider more prestigious than the ones Gio Ponti won and against better fields.

We went with a free form response system for the questions related to the social networks Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere. I picked Old Friends for Facebook, Chris Rossi for Twitter, and Steve Crist for blog.

The Poll is open through Friday. Vote now!