Who Will Win Horse of the Year?

Before Kentucky Derby champion Street Sense goes on to stand at stud, and before Curlin prepares to race as a four-year-old, the two will battle again, for 2007 HOY.

A Kentucky Derby champion many times has a few legs up on winning Horse of the Year honors, especially if he also won a Juvenile title. Street Sense did both. Was he 2007's best Thoroughbred?

Or was it the wonderfully competitive Hard Spun? Hard Spun raced marvelously in the Triple Crown classics, remaining right on the heels of the chosen stars, Street Sense, Curlin, and Rags to Riches.

And what about the lady, Rags to Riches? Previously unbeaten on the year, she achieved a stirring nose to nose victory over Curlin in the Belmont Stakes. The two bright chestnuts, both as powerful and as beautiful as the race itself, pounded through the stretch like unstoppable locomotives barreling to the end of the track. Rags to Riches joined a short list of elite ladies in winning that classic. Unfortunately, the flashy filly sustained a minor fracture in her next race that retired her for the remainder of 2007.

Curlin came from no where, showed his inexperience in the Derby, but in the Preakness, gathered his engine and his muscle and powered to an impressive win.

Then came the heart-stopping Belmont, the test of a champion, an unrelenting mile and a half gruel. He withstood the loss to win again in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, then awed everyone in the muddy Breeders' Cup Classic, displaying the powerful turn, the heart of a champion.

Curlin is my boy HOY, 2007.