With a memorable racing year drawing to a close, the woofing among fans aligned in the respective camps of super filly Rachel Alexandra and super mare Zenyatta continues. The only sure thing is that it will grow louder when the votes are tallied and the winner revealed shortly after the first of the years.

But as a memorable year winds to its final days, here’s a look at one man’s selections (not a vote, as your writer does not have one) for the winners of the respective categories for Eclipse Award championships for 2009. It was a year in which four of the sports major stars converged on Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks Days.

Rachel brightest
Longshot Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby just 24 hours after the 3-year-old Rachel Alexandra introduced herself to the world with a mesmerizing, record-shattering 20 ¼-length victory in the Kentucky Oaks.

Rachel would prove the brightest of those 3-year-old stars, but a sidebar to the Derby Weekend proceedings was the scratch of the year’s other brightest light, the 5-year-old mare Zenyatta, from a run in the Louisville Stakes on Oaks Day. Had she run in that race, it would have been her only dirt start of the year in a campaign that ended in her memorable and historic victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic over synthetic footing at Santa Anita.

Still likes Rachel
A few weeks back, this column space was used to argue that the gold Eclipse Award statuette that is awarded to “Horse of the Year” should go to Rachel Alexandra over Zenyatta. That opinion has not changed and, in this corner, it’s an easy call to make.

Rachel’s connections dared to be great, sending their filly in to win the Preakness, a race in which she whipped the Kentucky Derby winner and became the first filly in 85 years to take the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Majority owner Jess Jackson and trainer Steve Asmussen also sent her out to thump Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird and other males in the Haskell Invitational, then completed a perfect year with gutty win over older males in the Woodward at Saratoga in which she became the first female of any age to take that memorable race.

History making
Zenyatta, as it turned out, won all of her races and completed the campaign with her history-making Breeders’ Cup win. But she never emerged from her Southern California backyard in any of her wins and all came over synthetic surface.

Give Zenyatta the National Thoroughbred Racing Association “Moment of the Year” for her Breeders’ Cup win, but “Horse of the Year” should go to the horse that had the best and most memorable year. Rachel won on seven tracks in six states, surfaces both sloppy and fast, and beat males – both in her age group and older – three times.

A winner
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is a “Horse of the Year” campaign.
So Rachel gets my vote for the big trophy and, of course, wins the Eclipse for best 3-year-old filly. Zenyatta takes “Moment of the Year” and is best older filly or mare.

Here’s a look at the rest of my pretend ballot for Eclipse Award champions:

2-year-old – Holding my nose here to vote for the Bob Baffert-trained Lookin at Lucky, whose bid for a perfect campaign ended with a narrow loss in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. The nose-holding comes because he raced only on synthetic courses, but no other 2-year-old was more accomplished.

2-year-old filly – She Be Wild gets the vote, although my fingers are still firmly pinching my nose, as her crowning moment came on synthetic Pro-Ride.

Summer Bird
3-year-old – Summer Bird gets the honor in a campaign that might even be better than it looks. The belief here is that the synthetic track compromised his chances in a fourth-place run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Prediction: those who choose to bash this year’s crop of 3-year-olds will eat their words when this group heads into 2010.

Older Male – Gio Ponti wins in another nose-holder. A multiple Grade I winner on grass, he was top class winner on Polytrack and chased Zenyatta home in the synthetic Classic, which was essentially a grass race. With any racing luck at all, Churchill Downs-based Einstein would have won this trophy.

Impressive sprinter
Sprinter – Kodiak Kowboy, who ended his year with an impressive romp in the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, should be a second champion for Asmussen.

Female Sprinter – Informed Decision, winner of the Humana Distaff on Derby Day for amazing trainer Jonathan Sheppard, takes this no-brainer.

Male Turf Horse – the aforementioned Gio Ponti is an easy choice.

Female Turf Horse – Ventura was the best of an uneven division and will give late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel his final champion.

Jockey – Churchill Downs-based Julien Leparoux had an incredible year that included a pair of Downs riding titles and three wins in the Breeders’ Cup. It should be the young Frenchman’s trophy.

Owner – Strawbridge gets this one in a close vote for a U.S. stable that also included stars such as Forever Together and Just As Well, edging the considerable competition from Zenyatta’s owners Jerry and Ann Moss and Rachel’s Jackson.

It’s Asmussen
Trainer – Toughest call for me as mega-trainer Steve Asmussen has enjoyed another record-shattering year, Zenyatta’s trainer John Shirreffs put up stellar results with smaller numbers, and Sheppard has displayed pure genius with the Strawbridge horses and the resurgent 10-year-old Cloudy’s Knight. The choice here, in an incredibly close call, is Asmussen. But that’s one I’ll reconsider a lot over the next few days.