Accelerate HOTY

[bobphilo]

What a performance by Accelerate!!!. Pressed a pace that cooked the other contenders while wide on both turns and still won. He has my vote for HOTY. I don\'t care if Justify won the TC. They forfeited that award by retiring him early.

[Molesap]

How many times in the last 50 years has an older horse won five G1’s in the same year?
LOTS!
How many times in the last 50 years has someone won the Triple Crown?
JUST(IFY) TWICE!

Justify deserves it - the Triple Crown trumps all as it is so much more difficult than what Accelerate did. Justify won 4 G1’s in 9 weeks. He did not race every 60 days like the modern horse. The whole year argument makes no sense as they both ran 6 times this year with Justify being 6-6-0-0 and Accelerate being 6-5-1-0. People against Justify ask who did he beat? I think an equally deserved question is who did Accelerate beat? A washed up West Coast conditioned by a trainer that for whatever reason, cannot seem to get the vast majority of his charges to run past the summer of their 4YO season - they are either retired or need to be retired? A distance challenged McKinzie who had only one start since March? The Biscuit horse where his trainer could not decide between 6f or 10f? Catholic Boy who has been good, though not great on two surfaces. This seemed to be a very weak Classic. Plus, his last two wins were the ugliest consecutive G1 wins I have ever seen. He has heart and grit, so you cannot take that away from him. Accelerate deserves to be in the conversation, as does Monomoy Girl, but in the end it should go to the undefeated 3YO who is a Triple Crown winner â€" just because we had one a few years ago should not diminish his status. It is still the toughest triple in racing â€" especially when you consider the modern horse and how rarely it runs.

[jbelfior]

You must have had a ton of money on Accelerate after considering all of those reasons.

Couldn\'t disagree more regarding HOY, but odds are you\'ll end up being right when Justify wins it.


Good Luck,
Joe B

[bobphilo]

I think that these are 2 separate questions. One question is who should get HOTY and the other is who will probably get HOTY. The answer to the 1st question is Accelerate. The answer to the 2nd is Justify. Winning the TC usually earns a horse HOTY but not necessarily. Omaha did not get HOTY when he won the TC. that honor went to Discovery.
Yes Justify did dominate the 3YO crop during his brief career but never beat or even faced open competition. How he would have fared against Accelerate who has proven himself against all comers, including an impressive BC Classic win, is a matter of speculation. However Justify will probably get HOTY because most non-racing fans never even think of racing beyond the Kentucky Derby or Triple Crown 1 day or 5 weeks a year, so they will probably pander to the ignorant masses and give it to Justify.