Racing: Monkey King wins award in shock vote

No 13 Carabella, driven by Ricky May. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The need for a revamp of the voting system for New Zealand's harness racing annual awards has become more urgent after an unfathomable decision in one of its main categories.

The awards, held in Christchurch on Saturday night, gave Carabella the Horse of the Year title, only the second 3-year-old pacing filly to win it.

She had won 10 of her 11 starts, some after titanic battles with Bettor Cover Lover.

Her times, coupled with the fact that she is Northern Hemisphere-bred, suggest she deserved her title, especially with voters confused in the glamour category, Aged Pacer of the Year.

Confusion is one word that can be used to explain how Monkey King won that title over his Australian rivals Smoken Up and Themightyquinn.

Monkey King won with 14 votes over Themightyquinn's 12, with Smoken Up securing seven.

A closer look at their season's records suggests it is hard to justify how Monkey King's season was superior to his two Aussie rivals.

He won just three of 15 starts, including the New Zealand Cup and Free-For-All, but was then placed just three times in his past 10 starts and barely ran past another horse in the home straight in any of those races.

While he beat Smoken Up in the Cup and Free-For-All, he was thrashed by him and Themightyquinn in races at the Interdominions and/or Auckland Cup.

Both Smoken Up and Themightyquinn also won three times in New Zealand this season but from only five starts here and were placed in their other two.

As the winners of the Interdominion (Smoken Up) and Auckland Cup (Themightyquinn) those performances at least even out Monkey King's New Zealand Cup victory.

Their two Interdominion heat wins each again at least equal Monkey King's New Zealand Free-For-All win, so the only difference in their records are Monkey King's 10-race, six-month losing streak, whereas the Aussies never went a poor race.

The issue is confused by Smoken Up returning a positive swab after his Interdominion Final win but since that inquiry has not been heard he must be innocent until proven guilty.

Or if voters took the attitude he will lose that victory, then Themightyquinn is the Auckland Cup and Interdominion champion and had to win not only Aged Pacer of the Year but the overall Horse of the Year title.

While the statistics make it hard to justify Monkey King's win in the aged pacer it is hardly surprising, as New Zealand Cup week is by far our most hyped and watched harness racing carnival and leaves the greatest impression on voters.

However, the voting structure for the awards badly needs an overall as 39 mainly media representatives were asked to vote this year.

Of those, probably only five or six are full-time professionals covering harness racing, with even Trackside presenters who never cover harness racing live offered a vote.

One such voter admitted to the Herald he was embarrassed at being asked to vote, so the 39 voters are simply too many and severely dilute the pool of genuine knowledge with which the votes are cast.

A better system could be restricting the list to 10 or 12 voters who have to have attended a certain number of the actual premier meetings in the country, with a senior HRNZ official, like the handicapper, appointed as the main judge to break any deadlocks.

Otherwise, the awards might as well be open to a public vote because quite simply there were people voting this year who would not have seen, live at least, half the group one races in the country and almost none of the relevant races in Australia.

That said, many of the winners picked themselves.

Stars like Gold Ace, Carabella, Paramount Geegee, Flying Isa, De Lovely and Fly Like An Eagle, were all unanimous winners, or close to it, in their categories.

The award winners were:

PACERS

Two-year-olds: Male, Fly Like An Eagle. Filly: Cowgirls N Indians.

Three-year-olds: Male: Gold Ace. Filly: Carabella.

Four-Year-Olds: Male: Franco Emirate, Mare: De Lovely.

Aged: Male: Monkey King. Mare: Beaudiene Bad Babe.

Pacer of the Year: Carabella.

TROTTERS

Two-year-old: Male: Flying Isa. Filly: Escapee.

Three-year-old: Male: Paramount Geegee. Filly: Dolly Would.

Four-Year-Old: Male: Vulcan. Mare: Larix.

Aged: I Can Doosit. Mare: Annicka.

Trotter of the Year: I Can Doosit.

Horse of the year: Carabella.