By FullCardReports.com

The New York Turf Writers Association has announced it's annual awards and Breeders' Cup Classic winner INVASOR was named the winner of the Secretariat Award as New York’s Horse of the Year. Owned by Shadwell Stable and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, INVASOR won three other Grade 1 races prior to the Breeders' Cup - the Pimlico Special, the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park and the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga.

The turf writers honored Eibar Coa with the Eddie Arcaro Award as top New York rider and Todd Pletcher with the Woody Stephens Award as top trainer. All will be honored at the 84th annual New York Turf Writers Awards Dinner on Monday, August 20th, at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Through Monday's races, the inside is still the place to be on the inner track. The three inside posts have won 67 of 156 sprints (42.95%) and 55 of 121 route races (45.45%). Stats can be skewed because not every available post will fill for all races. Post seven has won 13% of the sprints in which at least seven runners have started (same percentage as posts one and three). Looking at the two-turn races, post five checks in at 15%, six points higher than post three.

Racehorse owners don't run and rarely train so they're under the radar for most handicappers. One exception this season is Michael Dubb, whose BILL PLACE, a gelding owned by Dubb and Sandy Goldfarb, won Monday's Jimmy Winkfield Stakes. Horses owned by Dubb are five for twelve on the Aqueduct inner track (41.67%) and have been in the money 83% of the time. Goldfarb horses are winning at a 33% clip (six for eighteen). The top barn at the meet is Winning Move Stable with seventeen wins from fifty-seven starts (29.82%).

With Kyle Branch sidelined after a gate mishap in Monday's first race, apprentice Jesus Ponce picked up the mount on CITIFEST in the third race and was rewarded when CITIFEST passed chalk PREMIER PERFECTION in the lane to score at 6/1. The win gave the 19-year-old from Panama his first winner in New York.

When racing resumes Thursday, the top race will be an open company entry-level allowance at a mile and an eighth. Top trainer Gary Contessa will send out an entry of the undefeated LOST GOING HOME and STAR OF TRIESTE. In tomorrow's article, we'll be taking a closer look at this one.