The Eclipse Awards, horseracing’s version of the Academy Awards, were announced last Saturday at Gulfstream Park and the stars got their due.
The Eclipse Awards are selected by voters from the Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. I have been fortunate enough to have an Eclipse Awards vote for nearly 4 decades.
This was the 46th time the Eclipse Awards were honored and California Chrome won the biggest prize of the night as the Horse of the Year.
California Chrome, who was Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male in 2014, became only the second horse to be named Horse of the Year in nonconsecutive years. The great John Henry won in 1981 and 1984 but California Chrome is the first entire horse so honored.
California Chrome won seven of eight starts last year, including the Dubai World Cup and Pacific Classic. His lone loss came against Arrogate in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. But voters opted to reward California Chrome for his overall body of work, even though Arrogate – whose only other stakes win came in the Travers – beat California Chrome in their lone head-to-head meeting.
This is a part of the Eclipse Awards that some dispute. There is no tried and true formula for the voting but in the end, deserving horses are rewarded.
Classic Empire, the leader in the clubhouse as the early Kentucky Derby favorite, received all 248 votes for 2-year-old male after winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Songbird got every vote for 3-year-old filly.
Songbird was winning her second straight title and she is one of the true monsters of the midway.
The older male division was a no-brainer as Arrogate was clearly the best of the group. No matter what happens in the champagne room, the filly by that very name was honored as the top 2-year-old filly. Sure, she was 33-1 when she won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, but she stepped up to the plate when it mattered and she hit it out of the park.
Beholder will go down as one of the classiest mares of all time and she easily won the older female category. In 2016 Beholder won three of her six starts and ran second three times. She ended her career by turning the cards on her arch-rival Songbird in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Beholder now will spend her days at Spendthrift Farm making babies and her first date could very well be Uncle Mo in the next few weeks.
Trainer Chad Brown deserved an Eclipse Award and he got one. He led the nation as his runners earned over $23 million and he won 42 Graded stakes.
Some feel LeBron James should win the MVP of the National Basketball Association every year and a case certainly can be made for that outcome. Javier Castellano is the jockey version of LeBron. He won his fourth consecutive top honor. His major wins including victories in the Kentucky Oaks, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and with the super game Flintshire. That runner won the male turf Eclipse Award and his class was there for all to see. Previously trained by the world-class conditioner Andre Fabre, Flintshire excelled on firm grass and got that condition for the most part in 2016.
The consistency of Tepin earned her top turf female honors and the speedball Drefong cinched his speed title with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Sometimes runners that just sprint don’t get the needed respect but Finest City was deserving of the Eclipse Award as the best female sprinter.
In the final few categories, Luis Ocasio was the top apprentice jockey and Juddmonte Farms was the top owner. WinStar Farm got the call as the top breeder as the Farm’s runners earned over $10 million.
In the final Eclipse Award, Rawnaq was honored as the top steeplechase racer.
When I was making the morning line for the Racing Form for decades, I picked 8 of 9 wins on a card numerous times. I never swept the card but in this year’s Eclipse Awards, I was right in every single category.
Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and again.
