I said I’d never do this but…

Real Writing on Racing 💯

I’m not a member of any racing organization that votes on Eclipse awards nor am I a member of the NTWA. As such, I have no official voting responsibility and never had any desire to change that status. It’s been my opinion for a quite some time that there are too many people voting on these awards and those that do probably need more clarification as to what guidelines should exist. With top horses running less than ever, assisted by a graded stakes system that trends increasingly top heavy, with too many stakes for the population of quality horses that exist, our “champions” as a whole have never been less credentialed than they are currently.

Using this year as an example, the likely 2 year old male champion has one stakes win, a potential older male dirt Eclipse winner and even Horse of the Year candidate has two stakes wins. The field for Turf filly/mare consists of a group with a single or pair of graded stakes victories and the overwhelming choice for 3 year old male will have three graded wins, only one in his lone start since June. It is not a pretty picture being painted when we are having multiple champions that won two or less races over a twelve month period, especially with a huge swath of graded stakes having relatively short fields, theoretically making a lower bar for graded stakes success.

That said I’m going to make the official Going in Circles choices here and we shall call them the Total Eclipses in honor of the upcoming real solar eclipse scheduled to happen April 8. I will give a brief reasoning for each category though I won’t bother with owner or breeders as they are just Wal-Mart awards, huge conglomerate operations only need apply. Remember that awards aren’t really important except to those who win them or believe that they should have. Most of the winners and losers won’t be remembered in the not-so-distant future and life will go on regardless. I do suggest playing the classic video below as you leaf through our “ballot”.

---

The Going in Circles Digest Total Eclipse Awards

Two-year-old male: 1. Fierceness 2. Muth 3. Unquestionable

Not much suspense here as no one really had much of complete campaign and Fierceness BC Juvy (Gr I) was by far the best performance by a two year old in 2023. Muth had a nice season with a win in the American Pharoh (Gr I) and a couple 2nd’s in the BC Juvy (Gr I) and Best Pal (Gr III). Unquestionable was impressive winning the BC Juvy Turf (Gr I) and we aren’t total surface discriminators so he gets the nod for 3rd.

Two-year-old female: 1. Just F Y I 2. Candied 3. Hard to Justify

This was a relatively straightforward division as well with the BC Juvy Fillies (Gr I) being the ‘make or break’ race with Just F Y I nabbing the title with a win at Santa Anita to add to her Frizette (Gr I) score. Candied ran a big race when a fast closing 3rd in the Juvy Fillies coming off of her win in the Alcibiades (Gr I) at Keeneland which was good but makes her second best. Like the males, Hard to Justify is a clear cut third for me, parlaying wins in the Miss Grillo (Gr II) and the Breeders Cup Juvy Fillies Turf (Gr I) to hit the board

Three-year-old Male: 1. Archangelo 2. Auguste Rodin 3. Integration

The three year old division was in flux until Arcangelo won the Travers (Gr 1) after taking down the Belmont Stakes (Gr 1) and Peter Pan (Gr III) before that. With no other three year old colt winning more than one significant stakes post-Triple Crown, the son of Arrogate didn’t really have any serious challengers. The best win by a three year old in North America was Auguste Rodin’s Breeders Cup Turf (Gr I) in his only domestic start, so we will give him the runner up spot. I’m tagging Integration for the show spot because his two electrifying stakes wins impressed as much as any non-Auguste Rodin BC Turf effort and he is returning for more action this year. Program Trading (GB) was great winning two grade 1 stakes (albeit softies) but he was no match for Integration. Add in the immensely talented More than Looks, Carl Spackler (Ire), Talk of the Nation among others and the older horse turf division finally doesn’t look morbid. Remember these are the Total Eclipses, we make our own rules and while retiring early isn’t dinged…racing on is rewarded.

Three-year-old Female: 1. Pretty Mischievous 2. Randomized 3. Maple Leaf Mel

Pretty Mischievous was scratched from the BC Distaff but she had a long and prosperous campaign, winning the Kentucky Oaks (Gr I), Acorn (Gr I) and Test (Gr I) (admittedly with an asterisk) plus the Rachael Alexandra (Gr II) with second place finishes in the Cotillion (Gr I) and Fair Grounds Oaks (Gr II). Randomized was in good form toward the end of the year with a big win in the Alabama (Gr 1), beat older foes in a weak, four filly Beldame (Gr II) and just missed in the Distaff (Gr I). Had she annexed cinch Older Female Champ Idiomatic in that race it likely would have tipped the scales in her favor but alas she didn’t. No filly was better than the competition in her division than the ill-fated Maple Leaf Mel was, so she gets the nod for third on our ballot.

Older Dirt Male: 1. Elite Power 2. Cody’s Wish 3. White Abarrio

Sprinters have traditionally been shunned in this category but in a nod to the decline of modern civilization and the older horse handicap division, I’m going with the most dominant older dirt horse that we saw in 2023, Elite Power. He mowed down an international crew in a ‘grade III thats better than that but is just a new race’ in Saudi Arabia to kick off the season. Mott seemed to have him about 80% cranked in his comeback in the True North (Gr II) on Belmont day when he dispatched a relatively ordinary group with ease. The son of Curlin showed extraordinary grit and determination in his subsequent start in the A.G. Vanderbilt (Gr I) when he gamely reeled in the excellent Gunite over a Spa strip that one excels on, getting his head down on the wire despite looking beaten a 100 yards prior. It was one of the best stretch duels of the year and kicked off an actual rivalry, something rarely seen these days in an era of duck soup. Gunite turned the tables in the Forego (Gr I), stealing away to an easy lead with a 23.16 first quarter, a proverbial crawl for that level, and sprinted away on the turn, also lugging six less pounds than his main rival, another example of 21st century racing office malfeasance in degrading what should be a handicap, into petty allowance conditions. Elite Power tried valiantly to make up the difference in the stretch, but Gunite is far too tough of a customer to be allowed three consecutive unchallenged 23 second quarters. The next logical step was the Vosburgh at Baqueduct but Mott was using that as a Breeders Cup tune up for stablemate Cody’s Wish so onto Santa Anita and the Breeders Cup Sprint (Gr I). Once again facing his main nemesis, Gunite, Elite Power mowed him and a good field of sprinters down using his patented powerful late surge to win going away to close out the Breeders Cup card, though it felt like few saw it as it was only broadcast on TVG or streamed, like it was the finale from Indiana Grand. The form for the race held up extremely well as the 4th, 5th and 6th place finishers all returned to win stakes next out. That said Elite Power is my vote for the older dirt male and if you don’t like it, start your own awards. The aforementioned Cody’s Wish had an excellent campaign and would make sense for the top spot but after a whiff in the Whitney (Gr I) when trying something new, an easy score in the Vosburgh (Gr II) over a soft serve crew, he had to gut out his 2nd consecutive BC Mile around two turns, just nipping the ordinary National Treasure while roughing his younger challenger up a touch. The sanity of two-turn dirt mile races being championship events in the first place notwithstanding, Cody’s Wish’s campaign was full, he won the Met Mile and a Breeders Cup race and he won’t go home empty-handed, I just took his stablemate here. White Abarrio was great in the Whitney and BC Classic, though both were subpar events in 2023. However two stakes win campaigns aren’t rewarded in the Total Eclipses, we acknowledge his late season excellence but with a bronze. Trainers and owners that don’t like it? Win more races.

Older Dirt Female: 1. Idiomatic 2. Echo Zulu 3. Goodnight Olive

Easiest winner in any of the older horse categories as a strong older filly/mare group sputtered as none of the big 3 names that returned for 2023, Secret Oath, Nest or Claireire was able to get untracked with two of the three not even making it to the Distaff. I don’t think we really even know if Idiomatic is that much better than the competition but she parlayed a strong constitution, early speed and a knack for winning into a solid, old school season of eight wins in nine starts, closing the year with victories in the Delaware Handicap (Gr II), Personal Ensign (GrI), Spinster (Gr I) and BC Distaff (Gr I). Easy choice. Echo Zulu was the most talented older filly that raced in 2023 and her wins in the Honorable Miss (Gr II) and Ballerina (Gr I) were pretty spectacular. Goodnight Olive was her typical excellent self but an unfortunate trip in the Derby City Distaff (Gr I) and getting beat pretty soundly by Echo Zulu in the Ballerina (Gr III) made her third best for us.

Older Male Sprinter: 1. Elite Power 2. Gunite 3. Nobals

The first two were simply the two best older sprinters in the US by a pretty wide margin. Nobals won the BC Turf Sprint and any chance I get to vote for a horse named Nobals, I’m taking it.

Older Female Sprinter: 1. Echo Zulu 2. Goodnight Olive 3. Caravel

The definitive sprint race for fillies in the United Staes in 2023 was the Ballernia (Gr I) at Saratoga on a miserable sunny day that happened to be run 36 minutes after the tragic Allen Jerkens (Gr I) played out in front of a national television audience. Echo Zulu beat Goodnight Olive decisively and that’s that. Caravel tailed off after beating the boys in the Jaipur (Gr 1) but her early season was strong enough to hold down the third spot here.

Turf Male: 1. Up to the Mark 2. Master of the Seas (Ire) 3. Casa Creed

Up to the Mark was probably best in the BC Turf when second to the rail skimming Auguste Rodin, had an excellent year and likely earned this title at Keeneland with a game late charge to nip Master of the Seas (Ire) at the wire in the Coolmore Mile (Gr I). The runner up had a banner Fall on this side of the pond with wins in the Ricoh Mile (Gr I) and BC Mile (Gr I) wrapped around that heartbreaker at Keeneland. Casa Creed had his best season at age 7 with wins in the Kelso (Gr III) and a repeat in the Fourstardave (Gr I) to go along with a brutally close second place finish in the 1351 Turf Sprint in Saudi where he was one jump short and a excellent effort in the BC Mile (Gr I) where he was 3rd, beaten half a horse by Master of the Seas (Ire).

Turf Female: 1. Inspiral (GB) 2. Mawj (Ire) 3. In Italian (GB)

In years when the domestic fillies and mares don’t sort themselves out clearly, the one start European Breeders Cup winner gets that door cracked open. 2023 was one of those years as expected division leader, In Italian (GB) started the year out strong with a couple graded stakes wins over tepid groups, but then started inexplicably blowing races despite being on easy, unpressured leads, not winning another race after Belmont Stakes weekend. No one else was able to step up and string together significant wins so we went with filly that ran the best race of the year against the deepest field of females and that was Euro invader Inspiral (GB). Mawj (GB) may have pinned down the top spot had she lasted one more jump in the Breeders Cup Mile (Gr I) after annexing the QE II (Gr I) at Keeneland in her US debut but to the victors, the spoils. (That is NOT a signal to bet Michigan in Mondays College Football Championship despite my dad doing a Joe Namath and guaranteeing a win for the Wolverines and their famous fight song, Hail to the Victors). In Italian (GB) didn’t have a bad year and her 2023 record would look great on 99.7% of horses in training, but she wasn’t a champion of anything this season except burning money.

Steeplechase Horse: 1. Awakened 2. Merry Maker 3. Snap Decision

Awakened won the Jonathon Sheppard (Gr I) at Saratoga, besting many of his main rivals for this award and in an inscrutable year, he gets the nod capping a great year for our guy Sean Clancy. Merry Maker looks to be a force to reckon with in 2024 for Arch Kingsley and Snap Decision gets the nod for third.

Owner and Breeder: we don’t bother with these categories as it’s silly to give awards to the biggest outfits simply because they have a huge volume with little context. It’s like voting for either Lowe’s or Home Depot in the Hardware Store of the Year award….boring….

Jockey: 1. Irad Ortiz 2. Paco Lopez 3. Luan Machado

Irad led all jockeys in the pertinent categories of money earned, stakes wins, herding incidents ignored by the NYRA stewards….Paco managed to get himself suspended for a month for giving up on a hopelessly beaten also ran, who happened to be second at the time, in a giant puddle at Parx and that isn’t something that we see everyday…plus my Dad likes him and Paco once gifted me a live chicken so he gets the runner up spot. Luan Machado, who is the regular rider of the modern day Hindoo of marathon distances Next, has seemingly figured out the mysteries of that impossible strip of fake land known as Turfway Tapeta and has the best jockey nickname in the game, the Axeman. Again if you don’t like my choices or reasoning, make your own year end awards and type 2000 words about them yourself!

Apprentice Jockey: 1. Axel Concepcion 2. Sophia Vives 3. Jaime Torres

Axel is not related to Dave Concepcion of the Big Red Machine, which is unfortunate as it would have added a little spice to an otherwise bland vote.

Trainer: 1. Bill Mott 2. Jimmy Jerkens 3. Gustavo Delgado

Mott trained three champions including the Going in Circles Total Eclipse Horse of the Year. What more do you want? Most of Jimmy Jerkens 2023 training wins are technically in Saudi Arabia but he is crushing them over there despite not knowing a soul, never having dealt with the odd race conditions, barely knowing anything about the horses over there or how the tracks play or much of anything. Which should be a reminder of how good of a trainer he is and how badly a lot of owners in the US screwed up by continuing to feed gluttonous super trainers rather than hiring one of the best horsemen in the world. Nice job guys. I think that the story of the amazing training job that Gustavo Delgado did when winning the Kentucky Derby with a horse who made his first start on January 28th is criminally understated. Just making it into the Derby field with a runner that doesn’t make a start till that late into the game is an major accomplishment…having him primed to actually get the job done, goes to another level. Had one of the fancy trainers had done this, fawning television analysts may have started speaking in tongues (there is a joke to be made here but I shall let it pass…) or gone into uncontrollable convulsions right there on the air. Three trainers won Triple Crown races this year. One was universally praised. One was universally scorned. One was universally ignored. No offense but voting for Brad Cox, Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown every year seems pointless and dull.

Horse of the Year: 1. Cody’s Wish

In 2024 and moving forward, we shouldn’t look at this award like we did in the past when something greater than a 4-5 race campaign was typical, when the season encompassed the entire year, seeking competition was still considered sporting, and the older horse divisions weren’t in shambles. There are several candidates for the title for the 2023 season and every one of them is flawed to the point that they’d be considered pretty dubious choices in the not-that-distant past. Elite Power got our nod for Older Dirt Male but his resume doesn’t wow you enough to forget that he was mostly out of the spotlight all year. His Breeders Cup win wasn’t even shown on a mainstream network, which shouldn’t matter but sorta shows that sprinters have to do something extraordinary to get noticed and he really didn’t. Horse of the Year isn’t supposed to be the wiseguy horse award. Idiomatic had a full nine race campaign which is impressive but many of her races came against less than top competition and while it isn’t her fault, the Distaff this season wasn’t strong and she barely held on to win. Technically she has a nice resume but she wasn’t even on most people’s radar until the Distaff itself, she didn’t face or beat open company and she’d have been a long price in the Dirt Mile (Gr I) or Classic (Gr I) if she tried. White Abarrio was much improved once transferred to Dutrow but he only won two stakes races and even if they were the Whitney (Gr I) and the BC Classic (Gr I) it would be a troubling decision to bestow this honor on a horse with that thin of a resume. They knew what his record was and chose to pass a prep which is fine and clearly worked out but two wins for a horse of the year that didn’t do anything extraordinary (the BC Classic field was one of the worst editions in its history) ain’t happening in Total Eclipse-land. Arcangelo…ditto. Too much passing. Up to the Mark is not going to get our vote because for us to honor a Turf horse with Horse of the Year, winning a Breeders Cup race feels imperative. You could make a solid case he was the most talented and accomplished American horse of 2023 but winning championship events is what should make champions. That leaves Cody’s Wish, whose on-track accomplishments have been oddly downgraded by some pseudo-clever minded turf scribes as they are weary of the human interest story that was poignant but felt overdone at the end. He won four graded stakes including the best performance by a dirt horse domestically in the Met Mile (Gr I). His only loss was a third when asked to exit his comfort zone in the Whitney (Gr I) and he won the BC Dirt Mile (Gr I) for a second consecutive year. He isn’t a perfect choice but his flaws are fewer than everyone else’s plus in the end it’s Horse of the Year, not best horse in his division of the year. When you look back at 2023, Cody’s Wish, like it or not, will be the name that you remember most.