Columnist Ralph Siraco: Declan’s Moon eclipses the field in Hollywood Futurity

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Dec. 20, 2004 | 9:11 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.

It has been many years since an Eclipse Award stood in the balance as late as Dec. 18. The deadline for casting ballots on horse racing's Oscars is Dec. 27, and all but one voting category had already been decided through Saturday. Now all of Santa's Eclipse list is complete.

Saturday's Hollywood Futurity put the finishing touches on the late Eclipse Award shopping list. The purse of $449,500 was over $1 million less than the Breeders' Cup Juvenile held at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30, the day champions are supposed to be crowned. But the stakes for this 24th renewal of Hollywood's Autumn meeting juvenile title-decider held more than adding zeros to the bank account of the winner. This Hollywood Futurity would also decide the year-end championship trophy.

Timing, lack of a clear-cut juvenile leader and the uneasy feeling that this year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile field came up weak in depth led to the late season Hollywood Futurity as a final proving ground for those who were on the leader board but still needing a strong finish to take the trophy.

After all, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner, Wilko, was installed at the third morning line choice for the Hollywood Futurity. And he was backed with little respect at the betting windows, as his odds rose as high as 28-1.

There was Proud Accolade, who bombed in the Breeders' Cup after a three-race win streak that led to a Grade I Champagne victory this fall in New York.

But this Futurity centered around a horse that didn't show up for Breeders' Cup at all. Declan's Moon had reeled off a maiden win, a victory in the Grade II Del Mar Futurity and a solid prep in the Grade III Prevue stakes leading up to the Saturday showdown.

Since Declan's Moon, who sold for $125,000 at auction as a yearling, was pointing for the Hollywood Futurity and not the Breeders' Cup, it was highly unlikely that a 2-year-old racing exclusively in California could be in a position to take the Eclipse Award for the best of his generation. Even if he was the best. And trainer Ron Ellis along with owners Mace and Samantha Siegel decided that paying a six-figure supplemental fee for the privilege of running in the Breeders' Cup was not a prudent move considering Declan's Moon was a gelding. Therefore, his value would not increase a cent by winning or losing the Breeders' Cup and risking the supplemental fee against the winners share of the purse didn't present the greatest return on investment.

But when Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Wilko was transferred to trainer Craig Dollace for the express purpose of preparing for an assault of the Kentucky Derby next year, the Awesome Again offspring landed on the West Coast. Sensing a single stateside victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile after a 10-race European campaign would not be convincing enough to get the Eclipse Award, Wilko made his 11th start of the year in the Hollywood Futurity, smarting from a quarter-crack discovered Friday on his left front foot.

Trainer Todd Pletcher knew the only way his Proud Accolade could climb back into Eclipse Award consideration was to come west and take on Wilko and Declan's Moon.

So the racing calendar put the Hollywood Futurity at the center of the Eclipse Award showdown.

Declan's Moon proved to be everything his backers thought he was on Saturday. Battling for the lead in the 1 1/16-mile Grade I race, Declan's Moon took care of early challenger Bushwaker and then turned back a gutty push by Wilko before repelling a late move by Giacomo to prevail. Proud Accolade was never threat.

Extending his career mark to four victories without a defeat, Declan's Moon may become only the third juvenile to win the Eclipse Award without competing in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, joining Forty Niner in 1987 and Maria's Mon in 1995. Every Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner since 1996 has won the Eclipse and overall only four non-Breeders' Cup winners have taken the trophy since the inception of that championship day of racing in 1984.

Declan's Moon gets my vote, because he settled the issue with a Hollywood Futurity victory on the race track, where all championships should be decided.