NTRA Moment of the Year, Part 2

The NTRA Moment of the Year is a fan-powered vote that earns its recipient an Eclipse Award (horse racing’s version of the Oscars) at the official ceremonies on Jan. 16 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. This year, the voting will be tallied exclusively on Twitter using designated hashtags for each moment. You can see the complete list of rules here, and please note that votes must be received by 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016.
As I have in years past, I’ll give you my take on each NTRA Moment of the Year candidate illustrated with photos (which are mine unless otherwise noted) in two parts. Part one is right here and below is my take on the second half of the ballot. The candidates are in the order the moments were presented by the NTRA and are not in any order of importance. So read on, choose your favorite, head over to Twitter and make your voice heard!
6. #Beholder 

There are impressive performances in sports, and then there are feats of athleticism that invoke the word “dominant.” When mega-mare Beholder faced a talented field of accomplished males in this summer’s Pacific Classic at Del Mar, she looked her challengers in the eye and then blew them away. 
In the moments leading up to the Pacific Classic, Beholder was the center of attention at Del Mar, despite facing a crowd of racehorses packing impressive resumes.

Among her challengers were four Grade 1 winners: Thoroughbreds who had faced and defeated the toughest level of competition in the game and come out on top.  Yet Beholder handled the challenge with ease, putting in an explosive performance that saw her romp into history as the Pacific Classic’s first female winner and record the second-longest margin of victory in Del Mar’s signature race.

All around the racetrack, the crowd went ballistic for Beholder as the mare’s connections hugged one another in joy.

Jockey Gary Stevens gave the big mare a kiss as they returned to the winner’s circle, congratulating her on the spectacular performance.

But her Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella just watched the celebration with a little smile on his face. I like to think he knew Beholder had it in the bag all along.

If Beholder’s historic Pacific Classic win was your Moment of the Year, be sure to tweet about it to @NTRA and use the hashtag #Beholder!
7. #JesssDream

Photo by NYRA/Coglianese Photo 
2009 was an amazing year for horse racing, especially for fans of fillies. On the West Coast, Zenyatta was creating devotees and breaking hearts as the California superstar; but on the East Coast, the name on everyone’s lips was Rachel Alexandra. The dominant winner of the Kentucky Oaks, Rachel went on to become the first female in 85 years to beat the boys in the Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. Her victories expanded throughout the year to include the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park (itself a race usually run in exclusively male company) before she stole the country’s heart by winning the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga in one of the biggest displays of heart and courage I’ve seen in a long time.

Photo courtesy of Eclipse Sportswire 
Rachel was a living legend, and her fans dreamed that one day they’d see that spark of brilliance again in one of her foals. 
Fast forward six years, and that hope became reality when Rachel’s first son Jess’s Dream (named for her late owner Jess Jackson’s dearest wish that his two best racehorses – Rachel Alexandra and Curlin – be mated) won his very first race at Saratoga in absolutely breathtaking fashion.

Photo by NYRA/Coglianese Photo
While Jackson sadly never got to see his dream come to fruition, fans of Rachel Alexandra felt shivers at Jess’s Dream’s absolutely commanding last-to-first race that, ironically, recalled the style of Rachel Alexandra’s famous contemporary Zenyatta. 

Video courtesy of The New York Racing Association, Inc. 
If Jess’s Dream’s transformational performance was your Moment of the Year, tweet using the hashtag #JesssDream and tag @NTRA when you do. 
8. #KeenIce 

When American Pharoah’s connections announced that the Triple Crown winner was headed to the Travers Stakes at Saratoga this summer, horse racing historians must have felt a premonition. After all, the racetrack is known as the Graveyard of Champions, since the “summer place to be” has a long record of dramatic upsets. Greats from Man o’ War to Secretariat have been beaten there; so when the Midsummer Derby drew near, even the most devoted Pharoah fanatics knew that the Travers would be no walkover. 
And people showed up in droves at Saratoga hoping to see another unforgettable win from the Triple Crown hero; fans in costume, fans sporting the colt’s signature silks colors of turquoise and gold, and everyone in between. 

When the gates sprung open for the Travers Stakes, American Pharoah went straight for the lead and parked there, taking the field throughout the opening panels of the race with his ears pricked.

After a lap around the racetrack and running for home, American Pharoah was still out in front. I remember standing next to a fellow photographer who said, “He’s got it! He has it!”

But it was not to be: Keen Ice, the horse who had finished a fast-closing second against American Pharoah in their previous race in the Haskell Invitational, came roaring down the stretch on the Triple Crown winner’s outside. You could see the moment Pharoah’s jockey Victor Espinoza knew it was over.

And it was. Keen Ice expanded his lead to a half a length by the finish line, earning the blanket of Travers flowers and a healthy paycheck in the process.

While it was still a thrilling race and Keen Ice deserved every accolade he earned in the Travers Stakes, some Pharoah fans still left Saratoga disappointed.

To vote for Keen Ice’s upset of the Triple Crown winner as your Moment of the Year, tweet to @NTRA and use the hashtag #KeenIce.
9. #Found

While the Breeders’ Cup World Championships are usually dominated by American horses on the dirt, the European invasion tends find massive success in the grass events. The top billing this year was the Breeders’ Cup Turf, which had drawn an entry from superstar Golden Horn, a horse who had dominated the lawn across the pond in 2015, winning the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the Eclipse Stakes and the Epsom Derby. 
When he arrived at Keeneland for the World Championships, the flurry of international photographers and journalists surrounding Golden Horn rivaled the entourage buzzing around American Pharoah.

Meanwhile, most of his European competition trained in relative obscurity as their media followed Europe’s most popular temporary import.

When Breeders’ Cup Turf time came, all eyes remained focused on Golden Horn to see if the colt could add to his legacy in America’s richest grass race. As the gates opened, rabbit-fast Shining Copper jetted to the lead, and Golden Horn settled into a comfortable second for the duration of the run around the backstretch.

All was going according to plan and it looked like the race would be Golden Horn’s; that is, until Found, the only female horse in the race, came charging up on the outside under a perfectly-timed ride from jockey Ryan Moore to steal the Breeders’ Cup Turf from the favorite.

With that, Found had upset the boys and galloped into Breeders’ Cup lore as the only 3-year-old filly to ever capture the Turf.

Be sure to tweet @NTRA using the #Found hashtag if her Breeders’ Cup win was your Moment of the Year. 
10. #APClassic 

The world was watching the moment American Phaorah set his hooves on Keeneland’s soil for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships to see if the Triple Crown winner could best some of the top Thoroughbreds on the planet in North America’s richest horse race.

In the days leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, American Pharoah impressed during training hours. With each lap around the track, his eagerness to move faster would have exercise rider Georgie Alvarez straining to hold back the athletic colt, to save something for Saturday.

And when the Saturday of the Breeders’ Cup Classic arrived, so did fans. People had costumes, made signs, and brought their enthusiasm with them to Keeneland in the hope that American Pharoah could face his biggest challenge yet and succeed.

And what a challenge it was: for the first time in his career, American Pharoah would be facing older, more experienced horses as well as the only Thoroughbred to have defeated him in 2015, Keen Ice.

And the Pharoah rose to the challenge: from the moment that American Pharoah left the starting gate in the Breeders’ Cup Classic to the final strides to the wire, he led the pack.

He made it look easy, despite the fact that his challengers were some of the best horses in the world. He quite simply proved that he is the horse of his generation, one that had rightfully earned his place in the history books. All over Keeneland, fans cheered their hero, and Pharoah’s connections celebrated their remarkable victory right alongside them.

American Pharoah’s win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic was something I had never even considered as a possibility. Consider this: the last time there was a Triple Crown winner – Affirmed in 1978 – the Breeders’ Cup was still six years from inception. On Halloween Day 2015, American Pharoah achieved a milestone that no other horse in history had ever had the chance to even consider before: a sweep of the Triple Crown followed by a win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, now called horse racing’s Grand Slam. He didn’t just make history: American Pharoah created a whole new milestone for Thoroughbreds and their connections to aspire to. 
If this is your Moment of the Year, use hashtag #APClassic and tag @NTRA on Twitter. 
Thank you for reliving each of the remarkable occasions making up the roster of the NTRA’s Moment of the Year ballot. Be sure to tweet your vote, and let me know in the comments what your favorite horse racing moment of 2015 was!