Favorite Trick was Horse of the Year -- for about an hour.

The unbeaten 2-year-old champion, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by 5 1/2 lengths at Hollywood Park on Saturday, had a lock on the crown until a 4-year-old gray colt named Skip Away ambled home by six smashing lengths in the $4.4 million Classic an hour and 21 minutes later.

Voters must now decide next month on whether to buck tradition and cast their ballots for the juvenile Favorite Trick, winner of all but one of his eight starts by 1 1/2 lengths or more, or follow a time-honored practice and select the older Skip Away, a winner of only four of 11 starts this year.

In the opinions of two Hall of Fame trainers, it’s no contest.

"Skip Away, by far," Bobby Frankel said without hesitation, "because he’s been running all year and giving away weight. I look at it like when a team goes to the World Series. It doesn’t matter what your record was early in the year. Skip Away won when it counted. I would have given it to the 2-year-old if Skip Away had gotten beat. I wouldn’t have given it to any other horse.

"But I think the voters from Kentucky will give it to Favorite Trick, and the people from California and New York will give it to Skip Away, and that’s why he’s going to win."

Jack Van Berg concurs.

"Skip Away has earned it," Van Berg said. "He’s run against all ages, the best there is, from one coast to the other. The 2-year-old is very impressive, don’t get me wrong. But I just can’t see a 2-year-old being Horse of the Year. Favorite Trick won impressively, but we don’t know how good the 2-year-old crop is. I thought Grand Slam was good, but he had a terrible accident in the race, so we won’t know. Skip Away’s beat everybody they brought to him."

Well, in four out of 11, anyway.

A future Hall of Fame trainer, Richard Mandella, understandably took another stance. He has a vested interest since he conditions Gentlemen, one of the pre-Classic favorites until an infection sidelined him a week before the race.

"I just hope they lay out the past performances on all these horses and look at the length of time (they raced)," said Mandella. "I don’t think you can just be on top of the world for a month and be a champion. If a horse has been at it all year, that’s a different story. That’s my own take.

"But Skip Away obviously ran great (in the Classic), and he ran great in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. But he’s lost a lot of races this year. But he could be a champion. Most of the voters see the Breeders’ Cup more than they see anything else, and voting can go that way. If it does, it does. There’s nothing I can do about it. In my mind, there’s only one (horse), and that’s mine.

"I’m sure each of the other players has the same idea. Favorite Trick as Horse of the Year? It’s worth a thought. He’s impressive, he’s 8-for-8, he’s traveled . . . I don’t know what you make of that."

Bob Baffert refused to call Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Silver Charm a Horse of the Year candidate. The white-haired trainer with the blue-collar mentality says Skip Away deserves the honor.

"He did it the right way," Baffert said of Skip Away’s trainer, Sonny Hine. "This guy put up the dough. He overcame all the disadvantages. He’s kept his horse going a long time. He knows when to back off. I’m just glad Silver Charm looks good for the 3-year-old championship."

Favorite Trick’s 41-year-old trainer, Patrick Byrne, naturally, sees nothing wrong with awarding the championship to a 2-year-old, despite the fact that Secretariat has been the only 2-year-old ever to be named Horse of the Year, in 1972.

"Why not? You saw how easy this horse runs," said Byrne. "He pricks his ears and plays with the competition."

Me? I could live with a championship for either horse. Skip Away probably will win it. But if I could own one of ‘em, I’d take Favorite Trick.

And as far as this year’s Eclipse Award-winning trainer?

Byrne, baby, Byrne.

THE HOMESTRETCH: Kent Desormeaux, on losing the ride on pre-race favorite Formal Gold in the Classic due to an injury: "It was like burning the winning lottery ticket." . . . Hine on whether he’ll scrap Classic-winning jockey Mike Smith and return to Jerry Bailey for Skip Away’s next start: "I haven’t decided yet. (But) we plan to race him next year as long as he stays competitive. We like to see him run." Bailey was committed to Behrens when Hine sacked Shane Sellers on Skip Away after the colt lost three straight races. Hine on putting up $480,000 to supplement Skip Away to the Classic: "You hate to go to the barn each day and just see the money laying in the stall." Skip Away’s victory was worth $2,288,000, but money means little to Hine and his wife, Carolyn, who owns the horse. They’re racing’s version of Ma and Pa Kettle, only the Runyonesque Sonny has a few pounds on Percy Kilbride. "After we won the Gold Cup (worth $1 million), we went back to the hotel and celebrated. She ate potato chips and I ate crackers and jelly." In 14 runnings, Skip Away is the only horse ever to win the Classic from the No. 1 post position . . . Hollywood’s head honcho R.D. Hubbard on the on-track crowd of 51,161 and a record total Breeders’ Cup handle of $81.4 million: "On the day, I didn’t hear one complaint." . . . D. Wayne Lukas was hopeful that a procedure performed Sunday on Grand Slam would allow the 2-year-old son of Gone West to eventually resume racing. Grand Slam was eased in the Juvenile after suffering deep cuts on his left hind leg inflicted by Johnbill on the first turn. "It’s the worst (injury of that type) I’ve ever seen," said Lukas. "I asked the doctors if he would be able to resume racing. They were optimistic, but they want to reserve an opinion." The Juvenile was roughly run, and Chris McCarron, who rode fourth-place finisher Souvenir Copy, gave fellow rider David Flores, who rode stablemate Johnbill, an animated piece of his mind on the way back to the jocks’ room. Johnbill finished fifth, a head behind Souvenir Copy. "I would have claimed foul," said Flores, "but both horses are from the same barn." . . . Touch Gold is getting a much-deserved vacation in an attempt to heal his ailing left foot. "He’ll be out of training at least seven weeks," trainer David Hofmans said. "He reinjured his foot (in the Classic). We had to cut the whole quarter out, so he won’t even go to the track until January." One report from Canada had majority owner Frank Stronach reporting Touch Gold would be out for six months. Touch Gold steadied early, but was moving six-wide on the backstretch when he called it a race. "McCarron said when the horse changed leads, he didn’t want any part of it," Hofmans said. "After he got shut off the first time and dropped back, I think he hit himself there and his foot was bothering him." Touch Gold finished ninth and last, beaten 37 lengths. Obviously, he is not a shadow of the Touch Gold who won the Belmont and Haskell . . . Alex Solis Jr., age 11, asked agent Nick Cosato if his rider, Victor Espinoza, was riding anything on Breeders’ Cup day. "Yeah," quipped Cosato, "he’s riding the bench."