POLL: Combine 3yo/Older SC Horse of the Year?

General
1

Combine the categories?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

So we’ve been doing 3yo SC Colt/Filly of the Year, as well as Older SC Horse/Mare of the Year. This seems a bit redundant, and the 3yo categories always have very few qualified horses since most horses swap to jumps at/after age 4.

Should we combine the categories into one SC Male/Female of the Year set? It would still include any standout 3yos, but would also prevent voting for a category with only a couple of SWs in it.

2

At the moment, 4 people have voted no. Care to elaborate on why? I’d rather this be a discussion more than majority wins (but may go with that in the end :wink:).

3

I voted Yes because of what Shanthi said. It seems to make sense.

Most of the horses that I have switched to SC have been at 4yo or above, although I do have a couple of 3yo that I switched because they were doing hopelessly badly (unfortunately, most of them haven’t shown any better form over jumps than they did on the flat).

Anyhow, if there is a year when we (FF) do have a number of good 3yo Sc’ers, I’m sure that Shanthi can reopen the 3yo SC Horse of the Year categories.

4

I voted “No” because I like having the option.  If I decide to switch a horse to jumps as a 3yo it’s nice to know that they may get recognized if they are good with out having to compete with the seasoned veterans. 

I like the idea of reopening the category if there happens to be a nice group of 3yo’s in a year.

5

I had a 3yo I i did not know was up for an award but I switched him after his first couple of races. I prefer having a sep. category as we now have jump trials so we have the option of not waiting for 4

6

I voted no because with jump trials I am switching horses to SC much sooner. I’ve already switched 3 (I think?) of my 3yos to SC because they ran poorly on the flat as a 2yo and after a few jump trials have shown promise…

With that said, I also like the idea of running it as one category if there isn’t enough ‘qualified’ horses (maybe make a minimum number of stakes wins to qualify?) in the 3yo category but if there IS a number of highly qualified 3yos and 4yo+ horses then I dont think they should be grouped together so maybe play it by ear?

7

I have a list of 3yos I’m going to trial this week due to lack of performance at 2 to see about switching

8

So it looks like majority votes for one category.

However, I’m fine with defaulting to one category, and if it looks like it needs trimming anyway (e.g. there are more than 5 equally nice horses), I’ll see if (in that year) it makes sense to re-create a 3yo category. (Obviously if all the top horses are 4yo+ then it still wouldn’t make sense.)

Thanks for the input, everyone. :slight_smile: