No Surprises as ’88 Eclipse Awards Announced

There were no big surprises when the 1988 Eclipse Awards were announced Wednesday, with Alysheba, Personal Ensign, Ogden Phipps and Shug McGaughey heading the list of winners, and California horses and horsemen getting shut out in the few elections that gave the voters options.

Alysheba, winner of the Santa Anita Handicap early in the year and first in 4 straight major races, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic, at the end, was voted the Eclipse--thoroughbred racing’s equivalent of an Oscar--for best older male horse. Alysheba, whose earnings of $3.8 million last year enabled him to retire with a record-breaking $6.6 million, is a cinch to be named horse of the year when the result of that vote is announced on Jan. 28.

Personal Ensign was voted the best older female. She completed an undefeated career with a stirring victory, by a nose, over Winning Colors, the Kentucky Derby winner, in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The first undefeated champion since Colin in 1907-08, Personal Ensign won all 7 of her starts last year and finished with 13 in a row.

The people around Personal Ensign and one of her stablemates also won Eclipse Awards: Phipps, 80, was named the year’s outstanding breeder and owner; McGaughey, who turns 38 Friday, was voted best trainer, and Easy Goer, another Phipps-McGaughey horse, was voted best 2-year-old colt. Phipps’ horses earned more than $5.8 million, and from only 38 starters in major races, McGaughey produced 15 wins, 10 seconds and 5 thirds.

Other Eclipse winners were Open Mind, 2-year-old filly; Risen Star, 3-year-old colt; Winning Colors, 3-year-old filly; Sunshine Forever, male grass horse; Miesque, female grass horse; Gulch, sprinter; Jose Santos, jockey, and Steve Capanas, apprentice jockey.

Chris McCarron finished second to Santos in the only split vote among the three participating groups--turf writers, racing secretaries at most major tracks and Daily Racing Form personnel. The turf writers and Racing Form voted for Santos but McCarron drew the support of the racing secretaries.

Overall, 219 ballots were cast, 70 more than in 1987, when the Eclipse system was criticized because only 63% of the eligible voters participated.

For Santos, the Eclipse ended 3 years of frustration, during which he has led the country in purses every time but never won the award. In 1988, with purses of $14.7 million, he broke Laffit Pincay’s 1985 record by about $1.3 million.

Unofficially, Santos beat McCarron by about $150,000 in the money race. McCarron, winning 17 major races to Santos’ 9 and winning a record 5 races worth $1 million or more with Alysheba, Forty Niner, Pay the Butler and King Glorious, was one of several California-based candidates who came up empty in the Eclipse voting. The others:

--Wayne Lukas, whose stable won a record 3 Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs and broke its own annual record with another $17-million year, lost out to McGaughey in the trainer vote, preventing him from winning a fourth straight award, which would have tied Laz Barrera’s record.

Lukas’ horses fared better than their trainer, however, for he and his son, Jeff, trained 3 of the Eclipse winners--Winning Colors, Open Mind and Gulch.

--Gene Klein, who, like Lukas, had won the owner award 3 straight years. In 1988, Klein’s horses won about $5.5 million, while running in four times as many races as the Phipps stable did. Winning Colors and Open Mind race for Klein.

--Fernando Valenzuela, whose horses earned more than $1.7 million in Southern California, was among the runners-up to Capanas, who won about $2.2 million with more than twice as many mounts while competing on a lesser circuit in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

--King Glorious, the undefeated 2-year-old colt and winner of the Hollywood Futurity. The voters chose Easy Goer, winner of 2 major races in New York and second, with excuses, to Is It True in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Easy Goer beat Is It True 3 times in New York. A virus cost King Glorious some training time, preventing him from running in the Breeders’ Cup.

--Great Communicator, who beat the champion, Sunshine Forever, in the Breeders’ Cup Turf and 7 weeks later won the Hollywood Turf Cup. Great Communicator won 6 stakes to Sunshine Forever’s 5 and both horses won 3 major races.