Horse Racing Today: If you want to vote for the Secretariat Vox Populi Horse of 2020, then visit Secretariat.com or AmericasBestRacing.net. Penny Chenery, Secretariat’s late owner, created this award, Latin for “voice of the people” to recognize the horse whose excellence in racing and popularity made the most inroads with the public and brought recognition to the sport.
Horse Betting Tip! – Don’t forget to check out all the amazing Horse Racing Futures available at online racebook JAZZSports.ag, including Early Odds to Win on the Kentucky Derby 2021 and Triple Crown cycle of races.
Vox Populi Award Voting Opens Up
Fans of horse racing today can choose one of five nominees put forth by the award committee, or they can select a write-in horse. The deadline is November 30, 2020. The nominees are:
Authentic (winner of the 2020 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic)
Monomoy Girl (winner of the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Distaff)
Swiss Skydiver (winner of the 2020 Preakness Stakes)
Tiz the Law (Winner of the 2020 Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes)
Whitmore (Winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at the age of 7 years old)
Obviously, 2020 was a year that saw the horse racing world – along with the rest of professional sport, as well as a considerable amount of overall human activity – rendered chaotic by the spread of COVID-19. Normally, the Kentucky Derby is run on the first Saturday of May, followed by the Preakness Stakes and then the Belmont Stakes, with three weeks between each race. This year, though, the Belmont was the first leg of the Triple Crown, coming in the middle of June, with the Kentucky Derby run on Labor Day weekend and the Preakness Stakes coming a month later.
The impact of this was to lengthen the Triple Crown window, raising the risk of injury for horses whose trainers put them in more prep races to keep them fresh and build points. It also meant that the late summer and early fall, usually a time to build for the Breeders’ Cup and to allow the sport’s two-year-olds to get some exposure, were instead spent getting ready for the Triple Crown.
Moving into 2021, the horse racing calendar is supposed to shift back to its normal timing, even if the pandemic means that tracks will remain empty of fans. So while 2021 should look more conventional, the five horses that have emerged as nominees are all deserving after performing at an elite level in a crazy year.
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