I was waiting until after the Hong Kong international races to write this because I figured if Winchester performed well in the Hong Kong Vase then I would have a stronger leg to stand on in supporting him as champion turf male over stablemate (and last year's Eclipse Award winner in that division) Gio Ponti.
Admittedly, Winchester's 11th-place finish is unlikely to inspire legions of voters to reconsider their allegiance to Gio Ponti, but they should.
There is a common lament among fans that the top horses don't face each other enough. For the most part I agree, but I'm also beginning to wonder what the point of such contests are if the results aren't going to count toward determining who the better horse is.
The Breeders' Cup Classic and how it affects the Horse of the Year discussion is certainly a part of that, but that's a topic for another time. The race I'm focused on for the purpose of making my case for Winchester is the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Handicap.
Gio Ponti had excuses for losing to his stablemate that day–a six-pound weight shift and it being the first race following the Dubai World Cup chief among them–but Winchester was just better that day in a win he later validated by defeating Grade 1 winner Paddy O'Prado in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational Stakes.
Gio Ponti also notched two Grade 1 wins this year in capturing the Man O'War and Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes, but the horses behind him in those races (e.g. Mission Approved and Society's Chairman, respectively) are far inferior than Winchester defeating champion Gio Ponti and Grade 1 winner Paddy O'Prado.
To be sure, Gio Ponti has earned credit in the minds of some voters for his second-place finishes to champion Goldikova, Debussy, and Karelian. I'd go so far as to say that Gio Ponti has earned more in defeat than any horse in history since his second-place finishes to females Zenyatta last year and Goldikova this year earned him a sort of "best male" consolation prize.
I don't really jibe that way, though. The goal is (or should be) to win, so in my mind the races a horse wins count exponentially more toward year-end honors than the ones s/he doesn't, and there is just no doubt in my mind that in terms of the turf male division Manhattan + Hirsch > Man O'War + Shadwell Mile especially since the Manhattan win came at the expense of Gio Ponti. Yes, Gio Ponti gave his stablemate weight that day, but Gio Ponti received weight from Karelian when he lost at 1-to-5 so the weight argument washes in my mind.
If fans want the top horses to race against each other more often, then the results have to count for something. Winchester beat better competition in tallying his two Grade 1 wins this year, including the horse many will vote for as champion turf male.
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Couldn't disagree with you more. One on Gio's Tampa Bay race-was his first race since the Classic so a layoff and two he washed and flipped in gate so for him to be that close a second was amazing to me. He never acts up in the gate and he flipped out and got wedged for a bit. If it always comes down to a head to head why do we need you guys to vote? And to blame fans for wanting more head to heads when a lot never even noticed Winchester before is silly. Not a bunch of clamoring for a Winchester-Gio match up was there? Winchester ran a great race in Woodford and like the Million I blame Dominguez a bit in both--Dominguez is who did not see either Debussy or Winchester not Gio. Paddy--well c'mon Ed--we all know that race was to see if Paddy could get a mile and a half and he couldn't and win. He had never run that distance and we know it. Not exactly a great comparison. Since you want to blow off Winchester's Hong Kong performance I do understand that but even thre Gio is better--he went to Dubai and was 4th by less than 2 full lengths. So on international races he still better than Winchester. Bet Clement happy to have them both tho. Sorry the class of the turf division was and still is Gio Ponti.
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