I figured that the Horse of the Year race was decided on Saturday night when Dewey surrendered in the stretch and Beach bravely blasted his way right to the wire.
The voters in the Top 10 Poll apparently saw it the same way. Today's poll shows Beach with 33 votes and Dewey with 2. It's all over but the shoutin' now. Even a shareholder in Dewey confessed online that Beach deserves the sport's greatest honor.
And now it's wonderful that Beach is going to get another chance to showcase his speed as he takes his talents to Dover in the First State. Guarantee they'll have a big crowd that night; those Delmarva folks dearly love a good pacer.
Since Shadow Play has hung up his hobbles for the year, there is little chance that Beach will suffer an embarrassing defeat.
Voters also took note of Muscle Hill's big mile on Saturday as he moved from 10th in the poll to sixth. Ironically, even though Crazed put in a lackluster performance in the sophomore colt trotting event, he moved up one place in the poll. Go figure.
Its awesome to see the Beach
Its awesome to see the Beach race at least 1 more time. I hope it is 2 but unlikely. Realisticly Shadow Play laying off to rest for the spring meet was a smart decision (esp with the Beach entering the race), but given the fact that he was the only real contender that could potentially defeat the Beach it opens the door up for the Beach now to chase the world record. With Shadow Play in the race he had to make sure he saved some for any charge Shadow play may have threw at him. Now weather permitting the Beach will be ale to try a lot harder to break Shadow Plays world record on 5/8's and own them all.
Best of Luck to him