The selection of Buck’s Boy as 1997 Illinois-bred Horse of the Year wasn’t announced until this week, but the 5-year-old gelding had his victory celebration last Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
It came in the form of a 3/4-length triumph in the Grade II Pan-American Handicap in Gulfstream-record time of 2:23 2/5 for 1 1/2 miles on the grass.
In earning the 1997 Illinois-bred title for owner George Bunn and trainer-breeder Noel Hickey, Buck’s Boy was a study in versatility. Racing on both dirt and grass, he ran in nine races at five tracks and was a five-time winner.
His most significant win came in the Grade III $300,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup, the Chicago circuit’s top dirt race for members of the handicap division. But perhaps his best performance was his fourth-place finish as a 35-1 longshot in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Hollywood Park, a 1 1/2-mile race that saw him lead for more than a mile.
Buck’s Boy, who also was selected the champion older handicap male, is Hickey’s second Illinois-bred Horse of the Year. His previous winner in 1991 was Lady Shirl, a mare he bred, owned and trained.
In the older handicap female category, Bonita Meadow was a controversial winner. The voting–by a panel of turf writers, publicists and racing secretaries–was an exercise in provinciality. Those who made Bonita Meadow the champion and My Own Lovely Lee the reserve champion ignored Sea Girl, who won two Group I races and three Group III races in Argentina.
“To win the Premio 25 de Mayo she had to beat males in one of the most prestigious of Argentina’s classic races for older horses,” said Sid Fernando, a South American racing expert who writes for Owner*Breeder. “Her owner, Linneo Eduardo de Paula Machado, has imported to this country (from South America) Siphon, who is a multiple Grade I winner, and Romarin, a multiple graded stakes winner. He puts her in a league with those horses, and he turned down a million-dollar offer for her last year.
“There’s no doubt that Sea Girl is a top class international horse.”
But instead of selecting Sea Girl, who was bred at Arlington International Racecourse owner Dick Duchossois’ Hill ‘n Dale Farm in Barrington, the voters went for Bonita Meadow, whose only stakes victory came in a $25,000 race for Illinois-breds at Fairmount Park.
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The other titlists are: Two-year-old colt/gelding, Academic Award; 2-year-old filly, Galaxy Gal; 3-year-old colt/gelding, Mann The Shipp ; and 3-year-old filly, Dawn’s Black Tie.