Filly War Of Athena tipped for top Equus award
Seven horses in the running for sought-after prize
When it comes to polls, they appear to be either accurate or way off the mark.
To the chagrin of Donald Trump, a poll published just two days before the US presidential election in November 2020 proved spot on in predicting Joe Biden would emerge the winner.
On Tuesday night there will be a multitude of winners in the various categories for horseracing’s annual Equus awards — the sport’s Oscars recognising notable achievements. Neil Andrews and Jessica Motaung will host the event on DStv (channel 249).
However, unquestionably the most important category is the horse-of-the-year award. Most pundits have deemed it a wide-open seven-horse affair between (in alphabetical order): Got The Greenlight, Kommetdieding, Jet Dark, Linebacker, Rainbow Bridge, Summer Pudding and War Of Athena.
According to a poll conducted by Sporting Post, that assessment is completely wrong, with the newspaper’s readers voting exclusively for two three-year-olds — 45.92% for War Of Athena and 37.93% for Vodacom Durban July winner Kommetdieding.
Rainbow Bridge, rated top SA racehorse in Longines World Rankings, took 6% of the vote, with Linebacker and Jet Dark faring worse with 3.19% and 2.43% respectively.
The result of the poll surprised the newspaper, which asked: “Did our readers vote with their hearts or their heads?”
With no annual dinner because of Covid-19 restrictions, the winners will be announced from Tellytrack headquarters in Rivonia at 8pm on Tuesday and it will be interesting to see if the Equus panel and the poll are on the same wavelength.
A clue to the outcome of horse of the year will come with the announcement of the champion three-year-old colt or gelding for the 2020/2021 season.
If, for example, this award goes to Kommetdieding, it would scupper the chances of the three other nominees Jet Dark, Linebacker and Malmoos. The judges aren’t going to give this category to one horse and then vote for one of the other three as horse of the year.
War Of Athena, who has had a stellar season in the care of Paul Matchett, looks certain to take the champion three-year-old filly-of-the-season award over the other two nominees, Captain’s Ransom and Zarina.
Though Captain’s Ransom enjoyed an outstanding season, she blotted her copybook when sixth in the grade 1 Garden Province Stakes.
Other categories for which nominations have been announced include:
Champion Older Male: Got The Greenlight, Rainbow Bridge and Querari.
Champion Older Filly/Mare: Queen Supreme, Run For Fox, Singforafa and Summer Pudding.
Champion Sprinter: Battle Force, Kasimir, Rio Querari, Run For Fox.
Champion Miler: Got The Greenlight, Jet Dark and Rainbow Bridge.
Champion Middle Distance: Got The Greenlight, Jet Dark, Kommetdieding, Linebacker, Rainbow Bridge and War Of Athena.
Champion Stayer: Atyaab, Malmoos, Nebraas and Silver Host.
The Turftalk website comments: “In quite a few categories, the judges will have exercised their minds.” That’s no maybe.