Who deserves the honor of being the thoroughbred racehorse of the year 2006 and why? d?

If I could vote, it would be for Lava Man. His '06 record of 8-7-0-0 is quite strong, and I am tired of seeing horses with 4-5 race campaigns win. Lava Man won four G-1 races (on dirt and turf), set a track record, was the starting highweight in every race he ran, overcame adversity and beat some nice horses. His biggest challenge is obviously Invasor who's '06 record is 5-4-0-0. Invasor's four victories all came in G-1 events and are highlighted by a win over Lava Man in the BC Classic - the race that all but guarunteed him HOTY honors. While I think Invasor is probably the better horse, the long gaps between starts, unimpressive early season wins and mediocre competition he faced (in all races but the BC) makes his campaign less award worthy than Lava Man's. One race should not be the be all end all of a year's campaign. And I would much rather reward a horse who ran once a month from February-November than a horse who ran once every two months.

Well, if there was a "horse of the world" award, I'd probably give it to Ouija Board as an international wonder who danced every dance and did a lot to promote racing, even though she didn't win.

If the criteria is to select the best horse racing in 2006, the one who would be most likely to beat all comers, I'd have to go with either Bernardini or Invasor. It's a tough call between them, because they were both fabulous racehorses but neither was perfect.

It's been a while since we've had a horse that was so dominating that there was no question of his right to the title "Horse of the Year." Maybe in 2007....*sigh.*

If Bernardini would've won in the Breeder's Cup, he'd be hard to deny. He didn't, so I think that gives the edge to Barbaro--who knows what he could've accomplished if he didn't break down, but he was such a monster up until that point. Though he didn't do much in the BC, I also think Lava Man deserves some consideration for his unprecedented run, winning all the major races on the tough So. Cal circuit.

Barbaro should be horse of the year, not so much for his accomplishments, which are considerable, but for the attention he has brought to horce racing. He still is the biggest story of the year and he hasn't raced for six months.