Eclipse Awards

Book'em Danno (Bucchero), the best horse the New Jersey breeding program has produced in decades, will return to the Garden State and make his next start in the July 17 Mr. Prospector Stakes at Monmouth Park. The race will be run the day before the GI Haskell Stakes and the purse will be increased from $100,000 to $200,000. It will be Book'em Danno's first start in New Jersey since he won the July 19, 2024 Jersey Shore Stakes at Monmouth, "This has been in the works for a long time,"...

Fan-favorite Groupie Doll (Bowman's Band--Deputy Doll, by Silver Deputy), winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint back-to-back in 2012 and 2013 and named champion female sprinter in each of those seasons, has been pensioned from breeding, according to a tweet from Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm. "Big News for the Groupie Doll fans!" read a post from Whisper Hill on X. "Groupie Doll has been officially retired from breeding. She will live at the farm in Florida and be pampered like the absolute queen she is for...

Maybe a touch earlier than expected, the rematch that the horse racing world pined for has arrived as reigning Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief) will once again square off against the 2025 GI Preakness Stakes winner Journalism (Curlin) in the GII Oaklawn Handicap on Saturday. Both colts will be making their much-anticipated 4-year-old debuts in Hot Springs. Sovereignty turned in a spectacular season last year when he won the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Belmont Stakes and GI DK Travers Stakes. The Bill Mott trainee came down with a...

The betting public thought it would be a welcome parade, and Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) did not let them down, striding home much the best in the GIII Bayakoa Stakes to kick off her 2026 campaign at Oaklawn. The Mark Casse star needs little introduction, but her record bears repeating: the daughter of the now-pensioned Medaglia d'Oro breathes rarified air as one of few horses who can claim Grade I wins/placings on two surfaces. As part of her nine-race championship campaign last season, she came a nose shy of winning the...

It was nothing less than a perfect GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who finished one-two in the $3-million race with Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) and White Abarrio (Race Day). To talk about his big day at Gulfstream, his concerns that White Abarrio would not run well, and plans for the two 7-year-olds going forward, Joseph joined this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. Joseph was the Gainesway Guest of the Week. White Abarrio had not run since the Aug. 31 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup...

Recently crowned Eclipse champion older dirt male courtesy of his victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar Nov. 1. Susumu Fujita's Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) turned in a strong piece of fast work Wednesday at the Ritto Training Center in advance of his title defense in the $20-million G1 Saudi Cup at King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Feb. 14. The newly turned 5-year-old, trained by the globally successful Yoshito Yahagi, was partnered in a gallop over 1200 meters by his regular jockey Ryusei Sakai and covered...

There are no rules, no guidelines, nothing of the kind, when it comes to Eclipse Award voting. You can vote for whomever you want for whatever reason you want. But I always was of the belief that there was an unwritten rule, or at least an understanding, that the Eclipse Awards were all about recognizing year-round excellence, that champions were the ones who most excelled throughout the year. Maybe that's because I became a racing fan and later a racing journalist when horses really did race more than four or...

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has sent a letter to stakeholders at the Eclipse Awards asking them to bar jockeys Irad Ortiz Jr. and his brother, Jose, from future consideration for the awards after the discovery of a social media video that appears to show the brothers collecting cash in a ring at a cockfight in Puerto Rico. It is unclear when the event took place. The 18-second video was posted on X in November, 2025 on the account of @Josmaestre131, with a caption in Spanish...

On Thursday in Palm Beach, Bob Duncan was honored with a Special Eclipse Award for Career Excellence acknowledging his contribution to the sport of horse racing through his work at the starting gate. I loudly applaud the NTRA, DRF and National Turf Writers & Broadcasters for recognizing Bob's unique talent and gift to racing with this award. I applaud Bob himself for his approach to his craft and the shining example he has set in handling horses with respect as partners in winning races. Bob and his craft are known...

The podium at the 55th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony was awash in Godolphin blue Thursday, with a homebred from that global bloodstock powerhouse, Sovereignty (Into Mischief), running away with both Horse of the Year and 3-year-old male championship honors. Sovereignty's on-track tour de force included emphatic Grade I victories in the 2025 Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes, and those headline-grabbing wins helped to trigger a cascade of accolades for the colt's human connections. Godolphin took home its sixth straight Eclipse recognition as outstanding owner and its fifth consecutive...

Sovereignty (Into Mischief) capped off yet another massive evening at the Resolute Racing Eclipse Awards for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's far-flung Godolphin operation, capping the festivities at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, by being named America's Horse of the Year for 2025 by a wide margin. It marks the second time in three years that a horse bred and raced by Godolphin stole the show, following on from Cody's Wish (Curlin), who took down top honors in 2023. Godolphin was also named outstanding owner and breeder Thursday...

Godolphin homebred 3-year-old Sovereignty (Into Mischief) has been named the 2025 Horse of the Year. In the final award of the evening, the Champion 3-Year-Old Colt added the ultimate prize to a 2025 campaign which saw him win five of six starts including three Grade I's. Beginning the year with a win in the GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream, he was defeated just once when second in the GI Curlin Florida Derby. He would go undefeated from there, piling up wins in the GI Kentucky Derby, the...