The annual Hall of Fame nominees were announced, and they really did resemble that fabulous girl group from Motown, ages ago—gorgeous, harmonic, stellar. They were three time Champion and winner of six Grade One races, Royal Delta (Empire Maker); Horse of the Year Havre de Grace (Saint Liam); her frequent nemesis (you’ve got to have rivalries in girl groups), Champion Blind Luck (Pollard’s Vision); and the only filly to ever win the Belmont S.-G1 (and two other prestigious Grade One races for fillies), beating leading sire Curlin in the process in an unforgettable stretch duel, Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy). What a star-studded super group! The pertinent and unavoidable question: which one is Diana Ross? I’m certain everybody will have an opinion as to this: different strokes for different folks.
Oh, yeah, and a guy was nominated too. Gio Ponti (Tale of the Cat), himself a three-time Eclipse Champion, but somehow he was always workmanlike instead of glamorous. Nonetheless, he is deserving. He also had the misfortune to finish second in the Grade One Breeders’ Cup Classic to the only mare ever to win it, the incomparable Zenyatta. This guy just can’t catch a break with the ladies.
— Roberta Smoodin