LITTLE ROCK — The battle for Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male appears so close that the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic could be more like a race within a race.
A victory by reigning Kentucky Derby champion Street Sense or 2007 Arkansas Derby winner Curlin would make the decision straightforward for voters who annually decide Eclipse Award winners in more than a dozen equine and human categories.
But a different outcome could leave those same voters scratching their heads, or,possibly, looking at who beat 1 whom in the 1 /4-mile Classic today at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J.
"I think it's a horse-forhorse race among those two [Street Sense and Curlin]," said Gary West, columnist and handicapper for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Armed with strikingly similar credentials, Street Sense and Curlin are two of the headliners in the nine-horse Classic field, possibly the most accomplished in a decade.
Street Sense and Curlin have to deal with 2006 Arkansas Derby winner Lawyer Ron, a topcontender for Horse of the Year and champion older male, and three more talented 3-year-olds - Grade I winners Any Given Saturday, Hard Spun and Tiago.
In the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association poll, Curlin, Street Sense, Hard Spun, Any Given Saturday and Tiago rank 1-2-4-5-9, respectively.
Lawyer Ron, the 5-2 program favorite for the Classic, is third in the NTRA poll.
"Right now, I think Curlin is the best horse in America at a mile and a quarter," said West, a past president of the National Turf Writers Association, one of three voting bodies for Eclipse Awards. "But I do think that Curlin, Street Sense, Lawyer Ron and Any Given Saturday - and Hard Spun can throw a big one, too - certainly those four are within a length of each other, or certainly a length and a half of each other."
The Classic has brought together the five 3-year-olds for the first time since the Kentucky Derby on May 5, when Street Sense reeled infront-running Hard Spun in mid-1 stretch to win by 2/4 lengths.
Curlin finished third, beaten 8 lengths. Tiago was seventh (beaten 10 lengths) and Any Given Sat-1 urday finished eighth (beaten 10/2 lengths).
Since that race, Curlin beat Street Sense to win the Preakness and toppled older horses in the Grade I Jockey Club Gold Cup; Street Sense won the prestigious Grade I Travers; Any Given Saturday dominated Curlin and Hard Spun in winning the Grade I Haskell at Monmouth; Hard Spun won the Grade I King's Bishop and went wire-to-wire to beat Street Sense in the Grade II Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park; and Tiago won the Grade II Swaps and beat older horses in the Grade I Goodwood Handicap.
"I think this is the best bunch of 3-year-olds, quite possibly, in maybe 50 years," said Larry Jones, trainer of Hard Spun. "This crop has already done things : When they've hooked up with all the older horses now, 3-year-olds have won every matchup."
West and trainer Tom Amoss, an analyst for TVG, the interactive horse racing network, agree that Hard Spun is an integral figure in a race that's fairly easy to decipher on paper.
Hard Spun, who wintered at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, is the quickest member of the field and should go to the front from post 8, with Lawyer Ron assuming a stalking position.
The key, West said, is at what point Lawyer Ron engages Hard Spun.
"Hard Spun, he doesn't surrender," West said. "He has proven time and again that he's a superb horse. As we know, Lawyer Ron can be very headstrong. If Lawyer Ron tries to go with him [Hard Spun] early, I would suspect they'll ding-dong all the way until the three-sixteenths pole.
"That could indeed, I think, open it up for Curlin."
Curlin and Street Sense, who both normally come from off the pace, are the only horses in the 1 field to win at 1/4 miles.
Street Sense captured the Kentucky Derby and Travers, while Curlin beat Lawyer Ron in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
to put Street Sense in a comfortable spot, and that was something he was not able to do at Turfway because he had to play in a race that was really to Hard Spun's advantage," Amoss said, referring to two-time Oaklawn jockey champion Calvin Borel. "No one challenged Hard Spun early, and Borel had to play the role of softening him up. That's not Street Sense's
Curlin and Street Sense are the co-second choices in the program (3-1).
Amoss, an eight-time leading trainer at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, said he expects Hard Spun and Lawyer Ron to duel for the early lead, but it will be Street Sense, not Curlin, picking up the pieces in the stretch.
"I see [Calvin] Borel being ablestyle. Street Sense's style is to lay back and make a run.
"If there's nobody to soften up the pace leaders, then that's a different story. But I think he'll get that here. I think Street Sense will make a very, very strong late move and win going away."
A scenario that would certainly make it much easier for Eclipse Award voters.
Sports, Pages 23, 36 on 10/27/2007