Spawr lashes out at Eclipse voting
Bill Spawr is upset that his top sprinter Bordonaro, fourth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint in November, is not among the three finalists for the Eclipse Award as top sprinter of 2006. The Eclipse finalists were announced Wednesday. Spawr lashed out at what he perceives as an East Coast bias.
"I’m surprised one of the lead ponies from one of those trainers back there didn’t get nominated," Spawr told Santa Anita's Ed Golden on Thursday morning. "California horses always kick their ass when we run against them back there. Take me out of the equation. We go back there and kick their ass. They come here, they can’t do anything.�
Besides Henny Hughes, badly beaten in the BC Sprint, the other two Sprint finalists are Discreet Cat and BC Sprint champion Thor's Echo.
Discreet Cat's only sprint victory last year came in a seven furlong allowance race.
“The only time Thor’s Echo beat us was in the Breeders’ Cup on a track that favored the rail and speed,� Spawr said. “He wasn’t even close to us every time he ran against us before. We beat him (by 2 ¼ lengths) in the Sunshine Millions and he was second to us (by one length) in the Ancient Title.
“Discreet Cat being a finalist is a joke, but we’ll just take care of business. We knew Bordonaro wouldn’t be a finalist, because he didn’t have recent victories. You need to do something the last two months of the year. What you’ve done earlier is forgotten, so we knew he wouldn’t be a finalist. Discreet Cat is not even a sprinter. He won the Cigar Mile. I’d love to run against those horses any time.�
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