Eclipse Award

Alberto Delgado, who earned Eclipse Award honors as the champion apprentice jockey in 1982, recorded his first win as a trainer when In Honor of Jeff rallied from last in Sunday's sixth race at Laurel Park, a $12,500 non-winners-of-two claimer for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs. It was the ninth starter saddled by Delgado, who retired from riding to train full time last December. "It feels great. I ran a couple of horses, and they were not running well," said Delgado. "Even though this horse was training well, you...

The winner of the 2027 National Horseplayers Championship will receive an updated cash prize of $1,000,000 along with a coveted Eclipse Award symbolically recognizing the important contribution all horseplayers make to the sport, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced Thursday. The 2027 NHC, presented by Caesars Race and Sportsbook, Racetrack Television Network (RTN) and Horseshoe Las Vegas, will be held March 5-7, 2027, at the Horseshoe. "Since its launch in 1999, the National Horseplayers Championship has realized unprecedented growth thanks to sustained participation by horseplayers and our members and partners...

Jockey Johan Rosado has moved his tack from Oaklawn Park to Kentucky, and has started picking up mounts at Churchill Downs, the track announced Friday afternoon. The son of Roberto Rasado, the 1997 Eclipse Award Outstanding Apprentice Jockey, Johan Rosado is represented by Ruben Munoz. He reportedly plans to ride in Kentucky throughout the spring and continue in the summer at Ellis Park. "My father was a jockey for 25 years," Johan Rosado said. "I always looked up to him. I grew up at the racetrack and have a lot...

Eclipse Award-winner Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) was one of two Mark Casse-trained runners to complete major preparations for the April 11 $1.25 million GI Apple Blossom Handicap with a five-furlong work over a fast track Wednesday morning under exercise rider Autumn Lavertu. Last year's top 3-year-old filly was timed in 1:01 (3/11) following splits of :25.20 for her opening quarter-mile and :37.60 for three furlongs. She galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.60. Trained by dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse, Nitrogen looks to rebound from a third-place finish in the $400,000...

After a nation-wide vote among his peers, Julien Leparoux is the winner of the 2026 George Woolf Award, Santa Anita Park announced via press release. The George Woolf Award honors riders whose careers and personal character earn esteem for the individual and for the sport. It has been presented annually by Santa Anita since 1950. As each year's winner is selected by a vote of fellow jockeys, it is one of the most cherished honors given to a rider. Entering Friday, Leparoux has won 3,066 races and tallied purse earnings...

Last year's Eclipse champion juvenile filly, Super Corredora (Gun Runner), will miss the GII Santa Anita Oaks Apr. 4 after getting sick earlier this week, trainer John Sadler reported Friday. The GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine has had a rough start to her 2026 campaign with two non-factor efforts in the Feb. 8 Las Virgenes Stakes and last out Mar. 8 in the GIII Santa Ysabel Stakes, where she missed the break and trailed far off her customary position. Super Corredora reportedly ran a fever earlier this week that...

New Jersey racing has not had it easy, and has not had it easy for a long time. Monmouth was in such dire straits that, after the end of the 2025 meet, there was so little money in its coffers that the track wasn't able to pay horsemen money that was owed to them for months. That problem arose despite the fact Monmouth was receiving an annual $10-million subsidy from the state to supplement purses. Worried that the subsidy, never a sure thing, might go away under the newly elected...

This wasn't the plan. Jon Green, the general manager of D.J. Stable, and trainer Mark Casse were ready to give 3-year-old filly champion Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) a nice break after her second-place finish in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff. But just 67 days after her last race, she will go in Saturday's GIII Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn, where she is the 4-5 morning-line favorite. Why? Because Nitrogen was telling Casse that she had had enough of taking it easy. "The game plan, initially, was that when she was done...

The President of Unified Door and Hardware Group, L C Racing's Glenn Bennett has grown from a regional, Pennsylvania-based breeding program to a band of 20 which now includes the dam of an Eclipse winner. Bennett, who lives close to Parx and still brings his family to the track for days like the Pennsylvania Derby card and Owner Appreciate Day, often partners with Chuck Zacney's Cash Is King Racing (best known for campaigning MGISW Afleet Alex) along with now-retired trainer Mark Reid who Bennett credits with the genius behind these...

The Eclipse-Award winning female sprinter Shisospicy (Mitole) spiked a fever following a recent workout, which will cause her to miss the G2 1351 Turf Sprint scheduled for Feb. 14 in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian race was supposed to kick off her 2026 campaign, and Shisospicy was scheduled to leave for there on Feb. 2. The Blood-Horse was the first to report the story. "She spiked a little bit of a fever," said Rich Mendez, who heads the Morplay Racing partnership that owns the 4-year-old filly. "If you look at...

DEL RAY BEACH, FL--Newly-minted Eclipse Juvenile champion Ted Noffey (Into Mischief) drew a small crowd when registering a workmanlike four-furlong move at Palm Beach Downs Friday morning. Campaigned by Spendthrift Farm, the undefeated colt worked in tandem with the farm's Authentic Chance (Authentic). The pair completed the task in :50.81, with the roan finishing slightly ahead of his workmate. The work was the first half-mile move for the 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' since his victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile victory at Del Mar in November. He...

Also honored in these same categories for 2024, Godolphin has been given the Eclipse Award for Best Owner and Best Breeder during Thursday night's ceremony. Godolphin both bred and raised 2025's GI Kentucky Derby winner and Champion 3-Year-Old Male Sovereignty (Into Mischief) along with GI Breeders' Cup Mile winner Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and GI Longines Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro). They also picked up top-level wins with homebred Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and El Cordobes (Ire) (Frankel {GB}). As owners, Godophin earned more than $22,395,556,...