We can see a progression at work in the award for Sim Horse Of The Year. It started with Gatling Prospector, a classic winning three year old who bounced back from a dismal summer with a redeeming Breeders Bowl Classic score. He was the best choice of the champions of 1999. School Kris(GB) then upped the HOY ante -- despite a loss in the 2000 BB, the turf star blazed his way to the title with a plethora of dominating graded stakes scores. Last year, another turf horse -- Joe Cayenne -- put together an even more convincing championship season. With tons of Grade 1 stakes victories, he capped off a dream season with a Breeders Bowl Turf trophy.

We went from the “best of the group” to the “best campaigner” to the “dream season champ.” In 2002, we can add “near perfection” to the roster with amandas’ Storm Dog.

“... no one, except perhaps her closest connections, could have predicted the smashingly successful and dominating season Storm Dog would have at three.”
   ---Topicount, Champion 3YO Filly and Turf Mare Article

“.... a victory that confirmed her as one of the best in the game.”
   ---Topicount, Champion 3YO Filly and Turf Mare Article

Next August, the Sim will begin its sixth year online. It has grown so much in five years from email-based game played by a small group of “old-timers” to a vast and almost cumbersome site with a huge community of players. Five years going on six. The Sim needs all the magic it can muster. It needs to shake off some of the old dusty cobwebs and embrace the flair of thunder and lightning. Thunder that is new and innovative, that provides depth and characterization. Lightning that captures the imagination, that gets people talking, encouraging interaction. Bring back the magic to the Sim and we can rediscover it again.

“What is amazing about this filly is there are so many options that have yet to be tried.”
   ---Topicount, Champion 3YO Filly and Turf Mare Article

Storm Dog has not yet tested the dirt surface. She has not yet gone beyond nine furlongs. This daughter of Storm Cat will be very exciting to watch this year and it will be likewise interesting to see how amandas stable handles their champion three year old filly and turf mare. And, just like Storm Dog, perhaps the Sim will try different options too in effort to recapture some of its own thunder and lightning. It still does simply each week though at the races -- for, in between numbers and names, our fancy still dwells in the stories told each Saturday post time. Stories about stakes stars and starlets on the road to championship performances. And because champions shall be crowned, and the champions of all champions shall be crowned:

 ¹ From Topicount's Champion 3yo Filly and Turf Mare article. :)