Great idea Nass
As my passion is heavily slanted towards National Hunt racing I'll take all my picks from that sphere:
Horse Of Year - Hurricane Fly for regaining the Champion Hurdle and breaking the record for most Grade 1 wins
Trainer Of Year - Willie Mullins. Genius what he has done with Hurricane Fly and Quevega. Hugely emotional moments on day 1 of Cheltenham, I'll never tire of watching the replays.
Jockey Of Year - AP McCoy. Despite JP's deep pockets he doesn't have the regular supply of top class horses that Walsh and Geraghty do but he scraps for every winner and his passion remains undiminished having passed the 4000 winner mark. Great scenes from Towcester when he booted Mountain Tunes home in typical, determined fashion, and it was fitting that he was riding for Jonjo and JP.
Story Of Year - The injury to JT McNamara at Cheltenham. Not a story with a happy ending, but the raw emotion displayed by JP McManus and others in the wake of McNamara's terrible fall reinforced with depth of feeling and camaraderie in the tightly-knit National Hunt community.
Race Of Year - The Melling Chase, hands down. The jumping at speed from the first 4 down the back straight was absolutely breathtaking, but not as breathtaking as the way Sprinter Sacre glided past Cue Card on the snaff between the last 2 and coasted clear under a motionless Barry Geraghty. A race that will live in the memory for ever.
Did I really see that award - Quevega stumbling at the top of the hill and nearly chucking Ruby over her head, then producing that scintillating turn of foot up the hill to take her legendary 5th Festival victory. I remember reading in AP McCoy's biography, where he got a right bollocking from Jim Bolger for trying to make up ground on a horse going UPHILL. "Make ground going downhill, it's much easier for the horse". The amount of ground Quevega made up the final hill that day was staggering. Another brilliant Simon Holt commentary to accompany the feat as well.
Your Most Memorable Betting moment - Monbeg Dude winning the Welsh National. Coming out of the back straight he was nowhere, then coming round the final bend approaching the 4th last you saw this rider in red silks about 30 lengths off the leaders, sitting absolutely still and you think "Hello, surely Carberry can't win from there". Then he edged his way inexorably closer all the way up that long straight at Chepstow and came to the last with a wet sail. But just to make his backers nervous, he made a right horlicks of the last but just had enough left in the tank to get the better of McCoy on Teafotthree. Didn't make me a fortune (my ante post Cheltenham bets on Hurricane Fly, Simonsig and Sprinter Sacre took care of that) but it was the one race where I was shouting loudest at the screen "Come on my son!!"
The Oops Award for the one that got away - too many of these to mention
but I continue to back Cue Card when he loses and have, to date, never backed him when he has won.
The Not606 post of the year - too many to mention really, but Bustino's thread "With the sap rising the mind turns to fillies" deserves an honourable mention (especially as it threw up some very nice winners) and also the recent post from Nass re his Cheltenham visit and the dress code at Newbury was a great read. But there are so many great contributions to the forum, which is what makes it such a tremendous place to be.
The Not606 poster of the year - Princess, for her untiring efforts to answer all our questions and increase our understanding of the breed. But also for setting up that visit to the Newmarket studs - fantastic stuff
The Ron award for being Ron - Ron, the one and only. An honourable mention to those members who put in the regular shifts on running comps - Chan and Reebs currently doing it weekly but also hawkeye and steveo, amongst others, who run comps at the big meetings
