Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Award goes to a horse?

There was a little awkward moment after Serena Williams lost to American Pharaoh for Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Award last week.

True, Williams would’ve had absolutely no chance of winning if the awards were based from the votes on YOU web site.

During the two-day debate, we didn’t come close to analyzing the sporting merits of both contenders, since most people could not overcome the first objection: it is a horse.

But Sports Illustrated have to explain their decision.

While American Pharaoh, would not be able to voice out its thoughts, there were a lot of thumbs raised in its favour when Sports Illustrated put the list of twelve athletes in front of magazine’s readers. It was a close call with 47 percent of the votes going to American Pharaoh and the editors’ choice Williams earning less than one percent.

She certainly deserved to be called in front of American Pharaoh, according to the respected British racing journalist Brough Scott.

Some say that Williams, who currently ranks as one of the world’s greatest Tennis players, both in male and female categories, of all time, should’ve won the title for the first time a long time ago. So could the magazine editors really let her lose it again? And to a horse at that?

Adding to the controversy is the fact that no horse has ever won the said award, even if jockey Steven Cauthen won in 1977, and for understandable reasons.

This is surely one controversy that everyone wants to keep track of. Who will get the award in the end – American Pharaoh or Serena Williams? We’ll find out soon!