Who is the 2014 Champion Older Female?

While some of the Eclipse Awards decisions were wrapped up at the World Championships, the Breeders’ Cup left other divisions as muddled as could be as we move ever closer towards the end of the 2014 racing season. Perhaps no division is more unclear than the Champion Older Female. Taking a look at the final NTRA poll of the year, which came out yesterday, not a single older female was found in the top ten, while five of them were bunched into the next ten. Let’s take a look at the top contenders, including their 2014 record, and final position on that poll.

Close Hatches (6-4-0-0) #15 - The Bill Mott mare has been the clear divisional leader for most of 2014 on the strength of four consecutive graded stakes wins to begin the year. Three of those were Grade 1, including arguably the best win in the division, when she defeated Princess of Sylmar, Beholder and Belle Gallantey in the Ogden Phipps. But then the last two races happened. Stinkers of a performance in both the Spinster and Distaff leave her lead in the Older Female division tenuous at best.

Beholder (3-2-0-0) #14 - The two-time champion is probably the mare that more people would say is the best on this list, but with only three races run this year, and one Grade 1 win, her chances at another championship in 2014 would seem to be slim to none.

Don’t Tell Sophia (6-4-1-1) #19 - The Phil Simms trainee is the other traditional mare on the list (distance runner on the dirt), and for 2014 at least, probably the most consistent of the bunch. Like Close Hatches, she boasts four stakes wins, but only one, the Spinster, was graded, so she likely won’t get a ton of credit for the other three. She finished strongly by soundly beating Close Hatches while winning the Grade 1 Spinster, and finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, but will that be enough to overcome the lack of recognition and respect from both East Coast and West Coast voters?

Dayatthespa (4-3-1-0) #11 - The New York-bred almost assuredly wrapped up the Eclipse Award as the Champion Turf Female with the two big wins to finish her year, but with the recent trend of voting for turf horses for the older award (see Wise Dan), she very well may have wired her way into a dual championship. She began the year with a second and a first in a listed stakes and a statebred stakes, but those are better than they sound when you consider that Filimbi and Discreet Marq were her respective top opponents. By winning Keeneland’s First Lady and Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, she beat a pair of high quality, deep, Grade 1 fields to finish her year. Although she is a turf specialist, that kind of finish could very well be enough to carry the day.

Judy The Beauty (5-4-0-0) #12 - Meanwhile no mare on this list compiled a better overall record in 2014 than Judy The Beauty. All four of her wins in 2014 were graded, including the Grade 1 Madison, and the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. Until the latter, her wins were with authority, and she also won on two different surfaces this year. If a turf specialist can be considered for this award, why not a sprinter?