DEL MAR, Calif. – The 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna emerged from the Breeders’ Cup as the leading candidate for Horse of the Year while Sierra Leone got a leg up on Fierceness for 3-year-old male champion in what figures to be a tight race following the weekend’s Breeders’ Cup races.
But several categories – such as older dirt male and turf male among others – lack clear-cut choices that could lead to more intrigue than usual when the Eclipse Awards honoring racing’s champions of 2024 are handed out in January.
Thorpedo Anna’s front-running victory in the $2 million Distaff completed a year in which she went 6 for 7 with five Grade 1 victories. Her lone loss was a head defeat to Fierceness in the Grade 1 Travers, a race in which Sierra Leone finished third. Sierra Leone beat Fierceness in Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Rachel Alexandra, in 2009, is the last 3-year-old filly to be crowned Horse of the Year when she went 8 for 8 and beat males three times.
In 2010, the 6-year-old mare Zenyatta won five Grade 1 stakes and was beaten a head by Blame in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and was voted Horse of the Year.
The Eclipse Awards are voted on by three groups – Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, and National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Ballots go out in December and are due back in early January, but most of the major players are done racing for the year. The Eclipse Awards ceremony will be held in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 23, 2025.
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Here’s a look at the divisions:
Two-year-old filly: Should be no debate here as Immersive’s 4 1/2-length victory in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies completed a 4-for-4 campaign that included three Grade 1 triumphs. Thirty-six of the previous 40 Juvenile Fillies winners were crowned champions.
Two-year-old male: With all the major stakes winners in the field, Citizen Bull should get the nod following his front-running, 1 1/2-length victory in the BC Juvenile. He went 3 for 4 with two Grade 1 victories.
Chancer McPatrick, sixth in the Juvenile, had two Grade 1 wins as well. Rated by Merit has run fast figures, winning all three of his starts, with two coming in Florida Stallion Stakes.
Three-year-old male: Sierra Leone beat Fierceness by 1 1/2 lengths in the BC Classic to equal the season series between them at 2-2. Their résumés are similar, with both winning two Grade 1s and a Grade 2. Sierra Leone, beaten a nose by Mystik Dan in the Kentucky Derby, did not finish worse than third in seven starts. Fierceness finished 15th in the Kentucky Derby.
Fierceness, who put forth a record-setting performance in the Florida Derby, beat Sierra Leone in the Jim Dandy and Travers and is the only horse to have defeated Thorpedo Anna this year.
Three-year-old filly: Thorpedo Anna. Enough said.
Older dirt male: Here’s where it begins to get tricky. National Treasure is the only one in this group to have two Grade 1 victories – the Pegasus World Cup and Metropolitan Handicap. He ran sixth in the Whitney before finishing second, beaten a head, by Subsanador in the Grade 1 California Crown.
Subsanador, Arthur’s Ride (Whitney), Highland Falls (Jockey Club Gold Cup), Mixto (Pacific Classic), Senor Buscador (Saudi Cup), Newgate (Santa Anita Handicap), and Kingsbarns (Stephen Foster) have Grade 1 wins, while Subasandor and Highland Falls each have another graded victory. Newgate was beaten a head in the California Crown and his fourth in the BC Classic was the best finish by an older horse.
Older dirt female: Idiomatic, despite missing the Breeders’ Cup due to injury, could be in line to repeat as champion in this category. She went 3 for 5 with Grade 1 wins in the La Troienne and Spinster and a Grade 3 win in the Molly Pitcher, a result that was flattered when Soul of an Angel, who came within a head of Idiomatic in that race, won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
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Adare Manor, also sidelined by injury, won two Grade 1 stakes – the Apple Blossom and Clement Hirsch – as well as the Grade 2 Santa Margarita. Raging Sea beat Idiomatic in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign and was second to Thorpedo Anna in the BC Distaff.
Turf male: Breeders’ Cup winners Rebel’s Romance (Turf) and More Than Looks (Mile) may lack the résumés to be voted champion. The Turf was the only start Rebel’s Romance made in North America this year, similar to 2022, a year in which he did not win the Eclipse. More Than Looks went 1 for 3 this year and while he did win the Mile, he was twice beaten by Carl Spackler in Grade 1 stakes.
In addition to the Fourstardave and Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland, Carl Spackler, sixth in the Mile, won the Grade 3 Kelso.
Johannes certainly deserves consideration with four graded stakes wins – including the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile – and a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Far Bridge won two Grade 1 stakes before finishing ninth in the BC Turf.
Turf female: Moira won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, but like many Eclipse candidates, her campaign was light. In a four-race campaign, Moira won the Grade 2 Beverly D. and was second to Whitebeam in the Grade 1 Diana and to Full Count Felicia in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor.
Didia won the Grade 1 New York and Grade 2 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf and was third in the Filly and Mare Turf. Gina Romantica won the Grade 1 First Lady and missed the Breeders’ Cup Mile due to a minor injury. Her connections are attempting to get her to the Grade 1 Matriarch on Dec. 1 at Del Mar.
Male sprinter: Speaking of light campaigns, Straight No Chaser won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in just his third start of the year. He also won the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship. Cogburn has made a strong case for having voters think outside the box in this category. His fifth-place finish in the Turf Sprint was his lone blemish in a season where he was brilliant winning three graded turf sprint stakes.
Before veterinarians scratched him from participating in the Breeders’ Cup, The Chosen Vron had won 5 of 6 starts, including the Grade 1 Bing Crosby. Mullikin was 4 for 4 with a Grade 1 victory in the Forego before running third in the BC Sprint. He raced at five different tracks.
Female sprinter: Soul of an Angel won the BC Filly and Mare Sprint at 19-1, but she ran in only two traditional sprint races as part of her 10-race campaign. She did win the Grade 3 Princess Rooney, and her supporters can argue that her victory in the Grade 2 Ruffian came in a one-turn mile race.
Society, second in the Filly and Mare Sprint, and Vahva, eighth in that race, were each Grade 1 winners in 2024.
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Jockey: Flavien Prat looks poised to win his first Eclipse Award. He won two Breeders’ Cup races – the Classic and Filly and Mare Turf – to bring his total number of stakes wins this year to 73 and graded stakes wins to 50, including 16 Grade 1s. Irad Ortiz Jr. (79 in 2022) owns the single-year record for stakes wins. Jerry Bailey (55 in 2003) holds the record for graded stakes wins in a year.
Prat’s $34 million in purse earnings are $3.7 million more than Ortiz, the five-time Eclipse Award winner who leads the nation in wins with 268, including 51 stakes wins.
Trainer: Chad Brown, the Eclipse Award-winning trainer from 2016-19, leads all trainers with 63 stakes wins and 46 graded victories – including 15 Grade 1s with 12 individual horses – and $29.4 million in purse-money won.
Kenny McPeek became the first trainer in 72 years and third trainer ever to win the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks in the same year. Thorpedo Anna, the Oaks winner, is the likely Horse of the Year.
Owner: Godolphin Racing has won the last four Eclipse Awards in this category and has strong numbers this year with 28 graded stakes wins – including Breeders’ Cup wins by Immersive and Rebel’s Romance – and 90 wins overall.
The ownership group of Thorpedo Anna – Magdalena Racing, Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, and Judy Hicks – will warrant consideration.
Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables had 13 graded stakes wins on the year.
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