Outstanding Trainer

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 Jockey Club of Canada named the finalists for the 2025 Sovereign Awards and the winners, along with Canada's Horse of the Year, will be revealed during the 51st annual ceremony to be held on Thursday, Apr. 23 at Paramount Eventspace in Woodbridge, Ontario, the club said via a press release on Friday. The nominees for this year's Sovereign Awards include a pair of past King's Plate winners in Canadian MGSW Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach)--a finalist for Older Main Track Female--and last year's hero Mansetti (Collected), who was named in the...

Chad Brown fought off a spirited challenge from Kentucky Oaks/Kentucky Derby-winning conditioner Ken McPeek to win the Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer for the fifth time overall and for the first time in five years. Brown's 2024 campaign was punctuated by an impressive array of Grade I winners, both on the turf and dirt, and was highlighted by 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), who gave Brown his first victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic before earning an Eclipse Award as the leading 3-year-old colt of the season....

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott won his fourth Eclipse Award as the nation's leading trainer in 2023. The 70-year-old saddled the winners of 10 Grade I races in 2023, including Eclipse finalists Cody's Wish, Elite Power, and Just F Y I, and his stable recorded earnings of $17.43 million--most ever in his storied career. Mott also earned Eclipse championships in 1995, 1996 and 2011.

Brad Cox earned his first Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer in 2020—ending a four-year streak by Chad Brown—and he doubled up in 2021 thanks to the exploits of his many standouts, including Knicks Go (Paynter) and Essential Quality (Tapit). Cox's runners racked up a North American leading $31,832,345 in earnings last season, taking 269 trips to the winner's circle from 1025 starters (26%). 

Godolphin enjoyed a banner year of racing in North America 2021 thanks to U.S.-based runners like Essential Quality (Tapit) and G1 Dubai World Cup hero Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper), plus a long list of successful shippers brought in from Europe. As such, Godophin took home its second consecutive Eclipse Award Thursday as outstanding owner (fifth overall counting one under the Darley banner), and its second as outstanding breeder. 

It's hard to believe that as of the morning of Apr. 7, 2018, Brad Cox had yet to garner his first Grade I win. Later that afternoon, the Cox-trained Monomoy Girl would win the GI Central Bank Ashland S., thus propelling her to wins in the GI Kentucky Oaks and GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, as well as a 3-year-old filly championship. Fast forward to 2020, the stalwart tempo continued with yet another championship run by the chestnut, who spent the entire 2019 season on the sidelines before mounting her epic...