Late bloomer Wise Dan has been named the United States Horse of the Year, easily beating I’ll Have Another for the title.
The five-year-old, winner of five of his six starts in 2012, became the first gelding to win the title since John Henry in 1984.
His major wins were the Breeders’ Cup Mile in course-record time and two other Group One turf races.
“I can’t tell you why, or people say, ‘What have you done?’ It’s just the horse,” trainer Charlie Lopresti said. “He just got really good this year.”
Wise Dan received 194 votes in balloting by the National Thoroughbred Association, Daily Racing Form and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters to easily outdistance I’ll Have Another (30) and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Fort Larned (12).
“The whole thing seems like a miracle to me,” 83-year-old owner Morton Fink said.
“Sometimes over the years, you have decent horses and something always goes wrong sooner or later. This year and last year, just unbelievable.”
Wise Dan was also named top older male and top male turf horse.
“People have been telling me for the last month that he’s got a chance to win all three. I didn’t know if I believed that,” Lopresti said.
“You want to believe it because you believe in your horse and you like your horse. It was just amazing that he did that.”
I’ll Have Another won all four of his starts including the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. He was scratched from the Belmont Stakes due to a tendon injury that led to his retirement.
Other winners included Zagora as top female turf horse, Royal Delta as top older female, Dale Romans as outstanding trainer, Ramon Dominguez as outstanding jockey, Godolphin Racing LLC as outstanding owner and Darley as outstanding breeder.
Dominguez, who suffered a fractured skull in a spill on Friday at Aqueduct, won for the third straight year.
He set a North American thoroughbred earnings record with $US25.582 million ($A24.37 million) and had 341 wins from 1398 mounts despite missing nearly two months due to neck and foot injuries.
Fellow jockey nominees John Velazquez and Javier Castellano accepted the award on Dominguez’s behalf.
“We’re very proud to be here,” Velazquez said.
“We have (Ramon) in our prayers and hopefully he’ll be back soon to be in competition with us.”
