Accelerate Aims to Create Some Horse of the Year Debate

In many years, the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1)—where older horses meet the best 3-year-olds with $6 million on the line—decides Horse of the Year honors, but this year the title already could be settled in favor of retired Triple Crown winner Justify . Or is it?

There's some discussion at Churchill Downs this Breeders' Cup week that Classic morning-line favorite Accelerate  could steal the title from Justify with a win. 

Both camps, as could be expected, make the case on behalf of their horse.

Asked if Horse of the Year is wrapped up, Elliott Walden, the CEO of Justify's co-owner WinStar Farm, said succinctly, "yes," drawing laughter from reporters. "For me. You asked me."

Justify's resume is well known.

The sport's 13th Triple Crown winner. Undefeated in six races of a meteoric career that spanned less than four months. Two of the three Triple Crown races were won in the slop. The son of the late Scat Daddy overcame the Apollo curse—being the first Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) winner not to race as a juvenile since 1882 winner Apollo.

Despite hopes to send Justify to the Breeders' Cup Classic, his connections announced his retirement in July after the horse had filling in an ankle.

"I wish we had him here, but it wasn't meant to be," Walden said this week. The only other Triple Crown winner in the 35-year Breeders' Cup era was American Pharoah , who put an exclamation point on his eventual Horse of the Year campaign by also winning the 2015 Classic at Keeneland Race Course.

Giving a fuller case for Justify as Horse of the Year, Walden said, "We try to be objective about things, seriously. But if you're one of 13 horses in history. ... To do what he did is just incredible and break the Apollo curse, undefeated, slop, 45 and (3) in the Derby and win. I mean, he did so many different things that that's what a true champion is about."

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On the other side of the debate, Accelerate, a 5-year-old son of Lookin At Lucky , is five for six this year. His only defeat came finishing second in the Oaklawn Handicap (G2). A Classic win would be his fifth grade 1 victory of the year.

"I'm biased," Accelerate's trainer John Sadler said. "If  he wins the Classic, he would be Horse of the Year for me. That's for the media to figure out. But he's won (four) grade 1s, you know, against the top horses. So we'll let that figure itself out."

In a year where there was no Triple Crown winner, that resume would be enough to be a main contender—if not a lock—for Horse of the Year.

While Walden, who does have a horse in the Classic with WinStar co-owned Yoshida, believes the debate is settled in Justify's favor, he acknowledges the quality of Accelerate.

"Accelerate is a horse that certainly deserves favoritism, and we'll see if he can carry his game on the road," he said. "But he's a very good horse and it's going to take a lot to beat him."

Alicia Wincze Hughes contributed to this report.