2020 Eclipse Awards: Authentic Voted Horse Of The Year In A Landslide

Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic winner Authentic was named Horse of the Year for 2020 in the 50th annual Eclipse Awards hosted by Spendthrift Farm on Thursday evening but held virtually with no live audience because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A 2017 foal sired by Into Mischief out of Flawless, by Mr. Greeley, Authentic was bred in Kentucky by Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds, Inc., owned by Spendthrift Farm LLC, MyRaceHorse Stable, Madaket Stables LLC and Starlight Racing, and trained by Bob Baffert. After a maiden victory in his career debut as a 2-year-old in 2019, Authentic won five of seven starts in 2021, including three Grade 1 stakes: the TVG.com Haskell Stakes, Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve, and Longines Breeders' Cup Classic.

He also won the G3 Sham Stakes and G2 San Felipe Stakes at his home base at Santa Anita Park. Authentic's lone defeats came in the G1 Santa Anita Derby and G1 Preakness (to 3-year-old filly champion Swiss Skydiver.

Authentic got 224 first-place votes for Horse of the Year, with Monomoy Girl receiving seven, Swiss Skydiver six and Vekoma one.

Authentic was retired to Spendthrift, where he will stand alongside his sire.

The complete list of 2020 Eclipse Awards winners appears below:

  • Horse Of The Year: Authentic
  • Two-Year-Old Male: Essential Quality
  • Two-Year-Old Filly: Vequist
  • Three-Year-Old Male: Authentic
  • Three-Year-Old Filly: Swiss Skydiver
  • Older Dirt Male: Improbable
  • Older Dirt Female: Monomoy Girl
  • Male Sprinter: Whitmore
  • Female Sprinter: Gamine
  • Male Turf Horse: Channel Maker
  • Female Turf Horse: Rushing Fall
  • Steeplechase Horse: Moscato (GB)
  • Owner: Godolphin, LLC
  • Breeder: WinStar Farm LLC
  • Jockey: Irad Ortiz,
  • Apprentice Jockey: Alexander Crispin
  • Trainer: Brad Cox

In voting that concluded January 4, 2021, Eclipse Awards voters cast their ballots to rank the top three horses and individuals in each Championship division on a 10-5-1 point system.

This voting established the top three finalists in each division, whose names were released on Jan. 16, 2021.

The tallies below represent only first-place votes from members of the consolidated voting entities, NTRA, Daily Racing Form, and National Turf Writers And Broadcasters.

Voter participation rate: 238/249 = 95.58%

Two-Year-Old Male
Essential Quality, 231; Jackie's Warrior, 6; Fire At Will, 1.

Two-Year-Old Filly
Vequist, 212; Aunt Pearl (IRE), 24; Malathaat, 1; Voter Abstention, 1.

Three-Year-Old Male
Authentic, 236; Tiz the Law, 2. 

Three-Year-Old Filly
Swiss Skydiver, 218; Gamine, 20.

Older Dirt Male
Improbable, 218; Knicks Go; 8, Vekoma, 5; Maximum Security, 4; Global Campaign, 1; Tom's d'Etat, 1; Whitmore, 1.

Older Dirt Female
Monomoy Girl, 234; Midnight Bisou, 4.

Male Sprinter
Whitmore, 132; Vekoma, 83; Volatile, 16; Charlatan, 4; C Z Rocket, 3.

Female Sprinter
Gamine, 219; Serengeti Empress, 13; Frank's Rockette, 4; Guarana, 1; Voter Abstention, 1.

Male Turf Horse
Channel Maker, 180; Zulu Alpha, 17; Order of Australia (IRE), 15; Factor This, 7; United, 7; Gufo, 4; Domestic Spending (GB), 3; Arklow, 2; War of Will, 1; Voter Abstentions, 2.

Female Turf Horse
Rushing Fall, 115; Tarnawa (IRE), 106; Magical (IRE), 8; Audarya (FR), 5; Starship Jubilee, 2; Newspaperofrecord (IRE) 1; Sharing, 1.

Steeplechase Horse
Moscato (GB), 155; Snap Decision, 28; Rashaan (IRE), 21; Iranistan,2; Voter Abstentions, 32.

Owner
Godolphin, LLC, 78; Spendthrift Farm, LLC, MyRaceHorse Stable, Madaket Stables LLC, and Starlight Racing, 56; Klaravich Stables Inc., 47; Gary Barber, 23; Sackatoga Stables, 7; End Zone Athletics Inc., 6; Peter Callahan, 4; Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, LLC, The Elkstone Group LLC, and Bethlehem Stables, 3; Calumet Farm, 1; Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, 1; M and M Racing, 1; Maggi Moss, 1; Kenneth L. and Sarah K. Ramsey 1; Gary and Mary West, 1; Voter Abstentions, 8.

Breeder
WinStar Farm, LLC, 128; Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds, LLC, 52; Calumet Farm, 45; Godolphin, 6; Charles Fipke, 1; Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC, 1; Voter Abstentions, 5.

Trainer
Brad Cox, 106; Bob Baffert, 69; Steve Asmussen, 44; Chad Brown, 8; Christophe Clement, 1; Michael Maker, 1; Peter Miller, 1; Ron Moquett, 1; Bill Mott, 1; Barclay Tagg, 1; Wesley Ward, 1; Voter Abstentions, 4.

Jockey
Irad Ortiz, Jr., 162; Joel Rosario, 54; John Velazquez, 14; Florent Geroux, 3; Tyler Gaffalione, 2; Flavien Prat, 1; Luis Saez, 1; Voter Abstention, 1.

Apprentice Jockey
Alexander Crispin, 79; Yarmarie Correa, 74; Luis Cardenas, 38; Charlie Marquez, 15; Cristian Torres, 3; Sunday Diaz, Jr. 1; Voter Abstentions, 28.

Media Eclipse Awards
Media Eclipse Awards also are given in the categories of photography, audio and multi-media Internet, news/enterprise writing, feature/commentary writing, television–feature, and television–live racing programming to recognize members of the media for outstanding coverage of Thoroughbred racing. The 2020 Media Eclipse Awards winners, determined by a judges' panel for each category and previously announced, are:

Photography – Alex Evers, Paulick Report, “A Derby Without Fans,” Sept. 21, 2020.

News/Enterprise Writing – Natalie Voss, Paulick Report – Multi-part Series: “A Decade In, How Are We Doing With Thoroughbred Aftercare?” Dec. 2, 2019; “Emptying The Ocean With A Teaspoon: The Challenges Of Aftercare,” Dec. 3, 2019; and “Aftercare Should Not Be An Afterthought: Solutions For The Future,” Dec. 4, 2019.

Feature/Commentary Writing – Natalie Voss, Paulick Report, “'An Angel On His Shoulder': This Thoroughbred's Fate Was Written In Ink,” May 13, 2020.

Television – Feature – NBC Sports, “Riders Up: The World's First Sports Bubble,” Oct. 2, 2020 on NBCSN; Produced by the Hennegan Brothers.

Television – Live Racing Programming – NBC Sports, “The Breeders' Cup World Championships,” Nov. 7, 2020; Billy Matthews and Lindsay Schanzer, producers.

Audio/Multi-Media Internet – Thoroughbred Daily News (TDN), “To Hell and Back: Belmont Marks A Deserved Triumph for New York City,” June 19, 2020; Joe Bianca, writer and narrator, Patty Wolfe, producer.

The Eclipse Awards are sponsored by Spendthrift Farm, Roberts Communications, Four Roses Bourbon, Daily Racing Form, Breeders' Cup, FanDuel Group, The Stronach Group, TVG, Dean Dorton, Stonestreet Farm, Keeneland, Racetrack Television Network, Jackson Family Wines, Florida HBPA, Runhappy, Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, Hallway Feeds, and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

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How It Works: A Detailed Look At How Eclipse Award Winners Are Chosen

This is the first piece in an occasional series designed to address reader questions about the way things in racing work – regulatory and business processes, technology, and more. Today, we're kicking off the series with an explanation of the voting process for the Eclipse Awards.

The process for choosing Eclipse Award finalists and winners varies slightly between award types. The winners of awards given to horses, trainers, jockeys, owners, and breeders are selected by a group of voters from three sources: the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form, and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB). NTRA voters include officials at NTRA member racetracks and field personnel at Equibase, racing's official database. Daily Racing Form's bloc includes a broad block of editorial staff in various positions, allocated at the company's discretion.

Only full members of NTWAB are granted a vote. NTWAB's membership is comprised of active writers or broadcasters working for recognized trade publications or covering racing for mainstream outlets. Members are granted admission after an examination of their credentials, which must include paid journalistic work, by the NTWAB board and a vote by existing membership.

In mid-December, all members of the voting body are mailed packets of past performances grouped by category. Voters are not limited to the horses or humans whose names appear in this past performance packet, but the packet is compiled based on the anticipated leaders in each equine group. Humans are listed under their category in various ways, showing leaders by wins, by earnings, and by graded winners. Complicating matters in the owner and breeder categories is the popularity of partnerships in modern racing. Earnings and wins are shown by entity according to the way they appear in the racing program, not per individual. For example, Head of Plains Partners often owns percentages of several active horses, rather than 100% of one horse. Because data gatherers don't know the financial arrangements of each partnership, they can't separate out the earnings Head of Plains gathered across multiple group ownership shares.

Voters may vote only for an individual person or racing stable on their ballot (i.e., voting for Authentic's ownership means voting for MyRacehorse, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, or Spendthrift, but not all four).

Voters are also advised to keep an eye on the graded stakes races through the end of the year, as a few still take place after the mailing of the voting packets.

Horses under consideration for an Eclipse Award must have made at least one start in the United States or Canada in the relevant year. Beyond this, members are not given specific instructions as to how they may select horses or weigh past performance information. Voters can and do ascribe their own meaning to grades of races, quality of effort, quality of fields, human connections, and more. Voters can also consider overseas races however they choose; typically overseas victories by American-based horses are given more weight than success of foreign runners overseas who made one American start.

It is generally understood that selected horses must align with the demographic group they're named in (i.e., if you vote for a mare in the older male turf category, you can expect a call or email asking if it was a mistake). Voters with particularly unconventional choices (such as a horse who primarily ran on dirt in a turf category) may be asked to justify their choices. Voting members are not provided with licensure information or horses' drug violation histories beyond disqualifications that may be evident in a past performance record. The expectation is that voters should be engaged enough to be familiar with the year's happenings or do independent research before voting.

Voters may choose to abstain voting in a particular category for any reason they choose. They may not choose the winner in the category and abstain from voting in the remaining two slots. Voters are expected to abstain in situations where they may have a unique personal interest, such as an ownership share in a horse who may be a viable candidate in a category.

Voters are then asked to make three choices for each category. The voter's top choice counts as their vote for the “winner” of the category. Voters rank their choices first-second-third. A first-place vote is ascribed 10 points by voting organizers, a second-place vote five points, and a third-place vote one point. The award winner is the one who received the most “winner” votes, while the three finalists announced ahead of the year's Eclipse Award ceremony are those with the greatest number of points.

Strangely, this means that a horse or person could garner a handful of “winner” votes but not become a finalist if a rival has a high number of second or third choice votes. In 2019, for example, Irad Ortiz Jr. was the clear winner in the Jockey category with 205 winner votes. He was a finalist in the category alongside Javier Castellano and Jose Ortiz. When complete results were announced however, it was clear that Jose only had one voter name him as a “winner” of the category, while Flavien Prat got five votes as “winner,” and Joel Rosario and Mike Smith got three each. Jose Ortiz must have had many more voters put him second or third on their ballots, which is how he was named a finalist and Prat, Rosario, and Smith were not.

After the results are announced, organizers send out a tally showing which candidates got “winner” votes and how many “winner” votes they got. This tally typically doesn't indicate how many points a candidate got as a second or third place holder on voters' ballots.

The finalists are announced in alphabetical order for each category, and do not reflect the vote totals, which aren't released until after the award ceremony. Voters do not receive the final results until the day of the ceremony.

The Horseplayer of the Year Eclipse is given to the winner of the National Horseplayers Championship. Voters do not weigh in on this category.

Media Eclipse Awards are decided differently. Media members may submit two entries in each of the media categories – there are two for writing, two for television, one photography, and one multimedia. Writers may also submit a single multi-part series in a category.  Media submit their entries for the year in mid-November. For media, the relevant “year” runs from November to November, the idea being that the Breeders' Cup marks the bookend of the racing season.

Judging panels of three experts judge the entries in each media category. Judges work on a volunteer basis and are often retired or semi-retired professionals with experience in the category, or active professionals who do not currently work primarily in racing journalism. Entrants do not know the identity of the judging panel until after the judging is complete, and are asked to remove identifying information from the text of their entry to keep things as objective as possible.

Media Award winners are notified and announced between late December to early January.

Special Eclipse Awards and Eclipse Awards of Merit are chosen by a small committee of representatives from each of the three voting blocs. The Special Award is typically given in recognition of outstanding achievement or service to the industry. It is not given out every year, but rather when the committee feels strongly that one candidate embodies the spirit of the award. The Award of Merit is a recognition of lifetime achievement and is also not given every year. Finalists for these awards are not revealed publicly but winners are announced in advance.

The awards are typically presented at a formal ceremony in late January, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will take place virtually on Jan. 28 and will be streamed across multiple platforms.

Want to know how something in racing works? Email us using the Ask Ray button in the red bar at the top of this page.

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Horse Of The Year, 16 Divisional Eclipse Awards Finalists Named

Led by Horse of the Year candidates Authentic, Improbable and Monomoy Girl, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) on Saturday announced the finalists for the 2020 Eclipse Awards, recognizing excellence in Thoroughbred racing.

Winners in 17 horse and human categories will be announced on TVG, and other outlets, during a virtual ceremony of the 50th annual Eclipse Awards, presented by Spendthrift Farm, on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. ET.

Of the 249 eligible voters represented by the NTRA, consisting of member racetrack racing officials and Equibase field personnel,  the NTWAB, and Daily Racing Form, 238 (95.58%) took part in the voting. Finalists were determined in each category by voters' top three selections, using a 10-5-1 point basis. Eclipse Award winners are determined solely by first-place votes.

The 2020 Eclipse Awards finalists (in alphabetical order) are:

Horse of the Year:         Authentic, Improbable, Monomoy Girl

Two-Year-Old Male:      Essential Quality, Fire At Will, Jackie's Warrior

Two-Year-Old Filly:       Aunt Pearl (IRE), Dayoutoftheoffice, Vequist

Three-Year-Old Male:   Authentic, Nadal, Tiz the Law

Three-Year-Old Filly:    Gamine, Shedaresthedevil, Swiss Skydiver

Older Dirt Male:            Improbable, Maximum Security, Vekoma

Older Dirt Female:       Midnight Bisou, Monomoy Girl, Serengeti Empress

Male Sprinter:               Vekoma, Volatile, Whitmore

Female Sprinter:           Gamine, Glass Slippers (GB), Serengeti Empress

Male Turf Horse:           Channel Maker, Order of Australia (IRE), Zulu Alpha

Female Turf Horse:       Audarya (FR), Rushing Fall, Tarnawa (IRE)

Steeplechase Horse:    Moscato (GB), Rashaan (IRE), Snap Decision

Owner:                         Godolphin LLC; Klaravich Stables Inc.; Spendthrift Farm LLC, MyRaceHorse Stable, Madaket Stables LLC, and Starlight Racing

Breeder:                        Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds LLC, Calumet Farm, WinStar Farm LLC

Trainer:                         Steve Asmussen, Bob Baffert, Brad Cox

Jockey:                         Irad Ortiz, Jr., Joel Rosario, John Velazquez

Apprentice Jockey:     Luis Cardenas, Yarmarie Correa, Alexander Crispin

In addition to honoring the 17 winners in the horse and human categories, Thomas Goldsmith will receive the Eclipse Award as the 2020 Horseplayer of the Year. Members of the media will be honored for outstanding coverage in six categories.

Eclipse Awards voting is conducted by the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB), the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), and Daily Racing Form. The Eclipse Awards ceremony is produced by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

The Eclipse Awards are sponsored by Spendthrift Farm, Keeneland, Racetrack Television Network, Four Roses Bourbon, Daily Racing Form, Breeders' Cup, FanDuel Group, The Stronach Group, TVG, Dean Dorton, Stonestreet Farm, Jackson Family Wines, Florida HBPA, Runhappy, Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, Hallway Feeds and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

The Eclipse Awards are named after the great 18th-century racehorse and foundation sire Eclipse, who began racing at age five and was undefeated in 18 starts, including eight walkovers. Eclipse sired the winners of 344 races, including three Epsom Derbies.

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2020 Eclipse Awards Finalists To Be Announced On TVG Jan. 16

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association, National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) and Daily Racing Form announced today that TVG will televise live the announcement of the finalists for the 2020 Eclipse Awards this Saturday, January 16 at noon ET/9 a.m. PT.

The Eclipse Awards, honoring excellence in Thoroughbred racing, are voted upon by NTRA, represented by member racetrack racing officials and Equibase field personnel, NTWAB and Daily Racing Form, and are produced by the NTRA.

TVG also will televise live the 50th Eclipse Awards ceremony, presented by Spendthrift Farm, on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. ET. The ceremony also will be streamed on additional outlets.

The Eclipse Awards are sponsored by Spendthrift Farm, Keeneland, Racetrack Television Network, Four Roses Bourbon, Daily Racing Form, Breeders' Cup, FanDuel Group, The Stronach Group, TVG, Dean Dorton, Stonestreet Farm, Jackson Family Wines, Florida HBPA, Runhappy, Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, Hallway Feeds and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.


Eclipse Awards are named after the great 18th-century racehorse and foundation sire Eclipse, who began racing at age five and was undefeated in 18 starts, including eight walkovers. Eclipse sired the winners of 344 races, including three Epsom Derbies. The Eclipse Awards are bestowed upon horses and individuals whose outstanding achievements in North America have earned them the title of Champion in their respective categories. Those awards are voted by NTRA, represented by member racetrack racing officials and Equibase field personnel, Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB). Eclipse Awards also are given to recognize members of the media for outstanding coverage of Thoroughbred racing

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