New rules for Hall of Fame
Thanks to new rules put into place for this year's election procedure, it will be harder to get into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. That's good news.
By Bill FinleyThanks to new rules put into place for this year's election procedure, it will be harder to get into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. That's good news. The Hall of Fame's admission policies had been laughably lenient, using a formula that allowed entry for people or horses who had no business getting in, which cheapened the sanctity of enshrinement.
Yet, the Hall of Fame only got it partially right. In an ironic twist, the same rules that may keep some undeserving candidates out will likely keep some deserving candidates from getting in.
Here's how:
Under the new procedures, voters can select as many as three horses or persons in any one category. To be elected, the horse, trainer or jockey must receive a yes vote on at least 75 percent of the ballots cast. If no one receives 75 percent of the votes in a particular category, the category will not include an inductee. If more than one candidate receives 75 percent or more of the vote only the top vote-getter will make it.
Under the old system, voters chose just one person or horse from each category and the top vote getter was accepted into the Hall of Fame. By insisting that someone had to be inducted each year in every category, several very undeserving candidates slipped in, some no doubt with 40 percent or less of the vote. In some years, there simply wasn't a horse, rider or jockey worthy of enshrinement.
I do not feel that any of the candidates in the jockey category (Eddie Maple, Jose Santos, Craig Perret, Milo Valenzuela and Randy Romero) deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. I will leave the jockey section of my ballot blank and will hope that my colleagues are equally conservative in this category and do not allow a shaky nominee to sneak in.
The new regulations are largely borrowed from voting procedures for the Baseball Hall of Fame, the most important and best run hall of fame in American sports. But Racing Hall of Fame officials failed to duplicate a key portion of the baseball procedures. In baseball, any candidate receiving 75 percent of the votes makes it, and it's not unusual to have two or more former stars inducted each year.
Racing will only allow one entrant in each category. Why?
Take this year's Contemporary Female Horse Category, which consists of Mom's Command, Open Mind, Sky Beauty, Inside Information and Silverbulletday. For whatever reason, this is almost always a strong category with several deserving nominees. This year is no exception; you can make a solid case for all five.
I will vote for Mom's Command, primarily because she is a deserving candidate whose induction is long overdue. She won 11 of 16 starts, including five Grade I stakes and swept NYRA's filly triple crown series in 1985.
Yet, it's unlikely she will ever get into the Hall of Fame. Her accomplishments, now 20 years old, become a little more distant every day and there are now dozens of younger voters who never saw her race. As long as Mom's Command is up against strong candidates that ran more recently than she did she has little chance. The only way she will ever get into the Hall of Fame is if they change this nonsensical rule and allow more than one candidate to make it from a category.
I have similar problems in the trainer division. Nick Zito looks like a shoo-in, and deservedly so. He has won two Kentucky Derbies, a Preakness, a Belmont, has developed two champions. He should have been in years earlier. I will also vote for Dale Baird. Granted, he has never operated outside of racing's minor leagues, but the top trainer in the history of the sport deserves to be in. But Baird will never get more votes than Zito and will likely run into similar roadblocks in years to come.
In the Contemporary Male category my votes will go to Best Pal and Silver Charm. Again, I'd like to see both make it, but it will not happen. There will have to be a next year for the loser among those two.
The Hall of Fame has taken an important step in the right direction. It's unlikely that we will ever again see a mediocrity inducted into what should be racing's most elite club. But more needs to be done. There are horses like Mom's Command who have been unfairly omitted. Only some common sense rule changes will do them justice.
