Standing Up for Wise Dan

We horse racing fans can be extremely difficult to please.

The most common refrain among hardcore racing enthusiasts is that top-notch horses don't stay on the track long enough. They're retired to the breeding shed early even in the best of situations, with unsoundness also rearing its head on too many occasions.

So what happens when racing is graced with a throwback in every sense of the word, a Grade 1 winner on dirt and turf, a multiple graded stakes-winner on synthetic surfaces, a winner of 13 of his last 15 starts (with two seconds), and a thoroughbred of modest breeding who will return to the races as a 7-year-old? Why, some fans look for reasons to tear him down, of course!

For the second consecutive year, Wise Dan swept Horse of the Year, Champion Older Male, and Champion Turf Male at the Eclipse Awards. Instead of celebrating a gelding who's banked nearly $6.3 million in career earnings, though, a segment of racing fans have turned into Wise Dan bashers, finding reasons why he isn't worthy of the praise that should be showered upon him.

Some say Wise Dan shouldn't have been Champion Older Male, and that the award should be reserved for dirt horses. Until the award is renamed Champion Dirt Male, though, I can't fathom why the no-doubt-about-it Horse of the Year, an older male, shouldn't be a lock for that trophy as well. Furthermore, whether Mucho Macho Man or Game On Dude fans want to admit it or not, neither deserved that award in the first place. Mucho Macho Man won just twice in 2013, while Game On Dude bombed on the biggest stage possible and really didn't beat much in the way of top-notch competition in his victories. Wise Dan was the most consistent older horse in America from 2013's start to its finish, with his lone loss coming to multiple graded stakes-winner Silver Max in a race that was rained off the turf.

Others insist a turf miler should never be rewarded like Wise Dan was last weekend at Gulfstream Park. That's a ridiculous notion. If we start penalizing horses for never winning outside a specific set of guidelines, we'd never hand out a single Eclipse Award. As good as Mucho Macho Man was in his final two starts of 2013, he didn't win in three starts away from Santa Anita. Will Take Charge finished with a flourish, but accomplished nothing in the three Triple Crown races, and in fact won nothing between the Rebel and the Travers. We've already discussed Game On Dude's failure in the Breeders' Cup Classic, and that about sums up the list of serious Horse of the Year contenders.

It's my belief that, in a perfect world, Horse of the Year would be given to the best, most consistent horse around, regardless of divisions. If that's a sprinter who ran everyone off their feet going six furlongs, fine. If it's a miler, fine. If it's a traditional candidate who won going long on dirt, fine.

The fact is that Wise Dan's resume this year is unmatched, and it's not close. He went 6-for-7 at five different tracks with four Grade 1 victories. He set a track record at Woodbine. He carried huge imposts to wins at Churchill Downs and Saratoga, and he capped off his campaign with a second straight win in the Breeders' Cup Mile. From January to December, no top-notch horse was more consistent than Wise Dan, and that's being overlooked because Wise Dan doesn't fit the mold of a traditional champion.

My response: So what?

In the 13-of-15 stretch referenced above, which dates back to October of 2011, Wise Dan has nine Grade 1 wins. His victory in the 2011 Clark Handicap on dirt came over top handicap horses Mission Impazible and Flat Out, and the 2012 Stephen Foster saw the gelding fall to multiple Grade 1 hero Ron the Greek by just a head. A list of horses he's defeated on grass includes Animal Kingdom, Data Link, Excelebration, King Kreesa, Lea, Obviously, and Silver Max, among others, and unlike so many brilliant horses who left us wondering what might have been, Wise Dan will return to the races this year.

So what's the problem? Naysayers need to stop poking holes in Wise Dan's season and begin embracing the thoroughbred for embodying the good parts of this game, ones that aren't emphasized nearly enough. It's not his fault no true traditional champion emerged from a chaotic 2013 racing season, nor is it his fault that his connections realize they have a world-class turf miler on their hands and didn't enter him in races willy-nilly last year.

I look forward to seeing the six-time Eclipse Award honoree strut his stuff this year. I just wish I didn't seem so alone in feeling that way.