If you want to put a gun to my head, I think I am going to vote for Justify, but with reservations. There is the brevity of his career, two of the tracks that he won over were a little gimmicky and the class of the horse he beat wasn't much. I'm not one of those people who always knock the 3-year-old crop, but you couldn't help but notice how little this group, outside of Justify, accomplished. It turns out that there was no depth in the Triple Crown races. I guess that 1882 and an undefeated Triple Crown winner has to trump a horse who had a very good list of accomplishments over a greater period of time. You had to beat this out of me because I've really been unsure. You look at a body of work and Accelerate really did put together a good body of work. He came East and he finally got the trainer off the duck in the Breeders' Cup. He'll be champion older dirt horse, but it really is a shame that it looks like he's not going to be Horse of the Year.
John Pricci is an Eclipse Award voter
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