Racing: Confusion reigns for award voters

Smoken Up, driven here by Lance Justice, is a strong contender for Pacer of the Year and Horse of the Year. Photo / Greg Bowker

The New Zealand Horse of the Year title could find itself in an embarrassing limbo next month.

Voting papers for the annual awards have been mailed out and the media must choose from a varied range of equine talent before the national awards night in Christchurch on July 23.

But the problem facing voters is that the official result of the biggest race of the season may not be confirmed by the time voting closes.

Smoken Up won the Interdominion Final at Alexandra Park in April, clean-sweeping the series, and as the New Zealand Cup runner-up he has legitimate claims to being the Pacer of the Year, and thus Horse of the Year.

Especially when you add in the freakish 1:48.5 mile the former Kiwi pacer produced in Australia this year.

But Smoken Up's Interdominion win is under a very dark cloud after his positive swab to DMSO, charges over which have already been laid.

But those charges are unlikely to be heard for at least a month and trainer Lance Justice is certain to provide a strong defence, meaning a quick decision is unlikely.

So do voters count Smoken Up as the Interdominion winner when voting, seeing him as innocent until he is proven guilty?

That raises the possibility of him winning a major award and a few days later being disqualified from the race that won him the award.

And it also leaves fellow Australian pacer Themightyquinn in a strange position.

He won the Auckland Cup and both his Interdominion heats in stunning style and finished second to Smoken Up in the Interdominion Final.

If the Smoken Up case was heard tomorrow and he was disqualified, then Themightyquinn would be the Auckland Cup-Interdominion champion with four stunning performances in New Zealand, and that should be enough for him to win Pacer of the Year and Horse of the Year.

Alas, his possible Interdominion promotion will almost certainly not be known until after the voting closes.

The confusion over the open class ranks - and with so much at stake the Smoken Up case cannot be rushed - could help champion filly Carabella.

She was beaten only once during a dramatic and remarkable season and because she has travelled the country she will have a solid fan base among voters from all regions.

That could see her get enough votes to win the Pacer of the Year title, which would put her in a straight shoot-out with trotter of the year certainty I Can Doosit for the Horse of the Year title.

Only one 3-year-old pacing filly has ever won the Horse of the Year title, Elect To Live in 2001, and she had to beat the boys in the Australian Derby to snatch the honour.

I Can Doosit should win the trotting title after taking the Interdominion and the Rowe Cup while he was the run of the race in our other great trot, the Dominion.

Which does raise the slight possibility he could take the overall title, although he does have a few defeats this season against his name and the trotting voters will be divided, with some favouring Paramount Geegee and even the likes of Stylish Monarch having regional bias.

Many of the other categories will have close to unanimous winners like Fly Like An Eagle, De Lovely, Flying Isa and Paramount Geegee but as far as the main award goes, at this stage all bets are off.

Meanwhile, champion reinsman Dexter Dunn was denied a chance to add to his record-breaking season of 220 winners when the Blenheim meeting on Sunday was called off because of heavy rain.