Tag: Finest City

The results are in!  Last night, the 2016 Eclipse Award winners were announced.  Congratulations to the connections of all the 46th annual award winners.

The Eclipse Awards were originated in 1971.  These awards are given to the most elite of North American Racing in 17 horse and human categories as well as media and people worthy of lifetime achievement recognition.  The name Eclipse was derived in honor of the great sire Eclipse.  Eclipse was foaled during a solar eclipse in 1764.  He was sired by Marske and his dam was Spilletta.  Eclipse did not race until he was 5 years-old.  He was undefeated.  He won 18 races consecutively and then retired because he had no one to race with.  8 of his 18 wins were walkovers.  He simply had no competition entered in his races because no one dared to try to match him.  Therefore, he retired to stud in 1771.  He was an amazing stallion.  His offspring, of up to 400 winners, have gone on to make him part of the pedigree in most Thoroughbred horses.  Secretariat and Phar Lap got their oversized heart from the Eclipse line.

On January, 21, 2017 the 2016 Eclipse Awards winners were announced beginning at 8 P.M. EST at Sport of Kings Theater, part of Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida.  Tickets to attend were $425 or it could be watched via TVG2 or multiple streaming services.  Last night’s awards were presented to the best horses, jockeys, trainers, owners, breeders, racing media, handicapper and 2 awards of Merit.  The panel of judges was appointed by the Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA).  The awards were organized by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and presented by the Breeders’ Cup, the Daily Racing Form and the Stronach Group.

Prior to last evening’s presentation the recipients were announced in the following categories:

• Merit – Andrew Beyer and Steven Crist.  Beyer is retired from writing for the Washington Post.  He is the creator of Beyer Speed Figures as detailed in his best selling book, “Picking Winners”.  Crist is a retired writer from the New York Times.  He was the founder, chairman and publisher of The Racing Times and chairman/publisher of The Daily Racing Form.  He created the category for the horseplayer of the year.  He has served on New York’s advisory commission on racing and he was the vice-president of the New York Racing Association.
• National Horseplayer of the Year – Paul Matties, winner of the National Handicapping Championship
• Media Awards – NBC, ESPN, Jay Houdey, Barbara Livingston, Molly McGill, Todd Marks, The Paulick Report, John Scheinman and Natalie Voss.  NBC won for television and live programming, ESPN for television and feature programming.  Houdey, Livingston and McGill won together for the Daily Racing Forms multimedia.  Marks won for photography.  Paulick and Scheinman won for feature commentary.  Voss was awarded for news/enterprise.

Last night we discovered those honored with the remaining awards:

1. Horse of the Year: California Chrome, at 6 years-old Chrome has one more race, the Pegasus World Cup, before he retires to stud at Taylor Made Farm.  He has won 16 of 26 starts in his lifetime.  He won 7 of 8 races in 2016.  He was the winner of the Dubai World Cup last year.  He won the horse of the year in 2014 too.  He also received the fan voted award for the NTRA Moment of the Year for his Dubai World Cup race.
2. 3 Year-Old Filly: Songbird, winning 11 of 12 races this filly is special.  Her only loss was her photo-finish to Beholder in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.  Her votes were unanimous.
3. 3 Year-Old Male: Arrogate, the only horse to beat Chrome in 2016.  He has won 5 of 6 races.  He won the Travers Stakes and the BC Classic.  He will compete again in the much anticipated Pegasus World Cup on 1/28.
4. 2 Year-Old Filly: Champagne Room, has won twice from 5 starts.  She won the BC Juvenile Fillies Stakes in her last race of 2016.  She is ranked number one on the Kentucky Oaks leader board.
5. 2 Year Old Male: Classic Empire, has won 4 of 5 career races.  His only loss was actually due to the fact he tossed his jockey.  His final race of 2016 was the BC Juvenile, which he won.  He holds the top spot on the Road to the Kentucky Derby leader board.
6. Older Dirt Female: Beholder, she now has 4 Eclipse Awards, she won as a 2YO and a 3YO and now twice for older in 2015 and 2016 consecutively.  Beholder has won 18 of 26 starts.  She won the BC Distaff in 2016 and is now retired as a broodmare.  Hopefully she will have an Uncle Mo foal in 2018.
7. Older Dirt Male: California Chrome, now has 4 Eclipse Awards.  In 2014 he was Champion 3 Year-Old Colt.
8. Female Sprinter: Finest City, is 5 years-old and has won 5 of 15 starts.  She won the BC Filly and Mare Sprint in 2016.  Yesterday, she won the Santa Monica Stakes.
9. Male Sprinter: Drefong, is a 4 year-old colt who has won the last 5 of 6 races including the BC Sprint.
10. Female Turf Horse: Tepin, is one of my favorites.  She is 6 years-old and she is still racing.  She will be entered on 2/11 in Tampa Bay Downs Endeavor Stakes.  She won the Turf Horse/Grass Mare in 2015 too.
11. Male Turf Horse: Flintshire, is a 9 year-old with 8 wins in 24 starts.  Only his first two races were not graded stakes and in 21 races he has finished in the money.  Flintshire has placed second in the BC Turf twice.
12. Steeplechase Horse: Rawnaq, is a nine year-old and deserves congratulations.  He does not flat race.
13. Trainer of the Year: Chad Brown earned his first Eclipse Award.  He trained New Money Honey for her win in the BC Fillies Turf in 2016.  He has won many BC races over the years.  He trained for 763 races in 2016 and won 182 of those.
14. Breeder of the Year: WinStar Farm won this award for the first time.  They made the most in earnings this year, collecting over $10 million dollars.  They also had the most graded wins in 2016.
15. Jockey of the Year: Javier Castellano won his 4th consecutive Eclipse award last night.  He was New Money Honey’s jockey in her BC win.  Castellano was ranked 4th by wins in 2016.
16. Apprentice Jockey of the Year: Luis M. Ocasio won his first Eclipse Award last evening.  He was 93rd in earnings in 2016.  He will be keeping busy at Parx Racing and Penn National this week.
17. Owner of the Year: Juddmonte Farms, owner of Arrogate, took this Eclipse for the third time.  They ranked second in earnings in 2016.

Thank you for all the award recipients for their contributions to the Thoroughbred industry.  Also, thank you for the money they raised last night at the live auction during the ceremony.  Over $80 thousand dollars were collected for Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.  I am proud of all the fine people and horses that make my favorite sport better.

Thank you for continuing to read and share my webpage.  My next post will get us up to speed on the upcoming Pegasus World Cup.