ND Horse Park Announces Horse of the Year Poll Results 

After giving race fans the past several weeks to cast their votes in the North Dakota Horse Park’s first ever public poll for Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse of the Year honors, the Horse Park is excited to reveal the winners that the fans have chosen!

The outstanding 2009 racing season at the North Dakota Horse Park in Fargo let the light shine on equine stars old and new.  The competitiveness of both the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse divisions led Horse Park manager, Heather Benson, to test the web as a new medium for helping decide just who gets top honors.  “We had some absolutely outstanding racing this season and when you looked at the horses we had narrowed it down to, it was really quite difficult to pick one over the other, so we thought we would let our racing fans in on it!” said Benson “Our website and Facebook pages have been heavily utilized by both horsemen and racing fans all season, so we put them to the test”.

The three finalists for each division (the Horse Park runs a mixed meet of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing) were chosen by Horse Park management.  The three finalists for Thoroughbred Horse of the Year were:

• Tonys a Genius
Dave Bernhardt trainee won three and placed second in four starts at the Horse Park in 2009.  
• Augie Gee
Bred, owned and trained by Mandan, North Dakota native Scott Horst, the ultra-consistent 3-year-old North Dakota-bred gelding won the North Dakota Derby on August 29^th as well as placing in the money in 5 of 6 races during the 7 week racing season.
• Dance Cruise
Winner of the Flickertail Stakes against the girls, she came back 2 weeks later and tackled the boys in the Shooting Star Stakes on the final weekend, place second and beating the likes of Augie Gee, Aferds Code Red and Lonesome Traveler. 

The three finalists for Quarter Horse of the Year were:

• Shake Em Diva
The “lady in white”, this 3-year-old grey filly flew home to victories in the North Dakota-bred Quarter Horse Derby and the Northern Plains Derby while taking third in AQHA Challenge Stakes in between. 
• Little Love Affair
A big heart in a small package, 2-year-old filly Little Love Affair started running and never looked back in a undefeated season at the North Dakota Horse Park.  The biggest money winner of the year  for either breed at the Park, she won the North DAkot-bred and Northern Plains Futurities,
• No Temper Here
Undefeated at the North Dakota Horse Park, No Temper Here set a new track record in winning the AQHA Challenge Race over the boys and Shake Em Diva 

After all the votes were cast for the finalists, the winner for each division was: 

Thoroughbred Horse of the Year: Augie Gee (winning 47% of the vote)
2006 Chestnut Gelding by Aggie Southpaw and out of Wilpitz Road by Manzotti
Owner, Trainer and Breeder: Scott Horst 

Quarter Horse of the Year: Little Love Affair (winning 61% of the vote)
2007 Sorrel Filly by Rare News and out of Sweet Sashay by Prized
Owner/Trainer: Jim Fleming
Breeder: Karen Glasser