BloodHorse Monday 12/29/25 | Eclipse Awards w/ Steve Kornacki

All right, welcome. In it is episode 48 of this

thing we call Blood Horse Monday.

He's Sean. I'm Louis.

Thanks for hanging out with us this week on the program.

He's already on screen. His name is Steve Kornacki.

He's from NBC, which means it's either we're going to talk about

the NFL or the Eclipse Awards. That's all we do with Steve at

this point of we off odds for my Lions not very good.

Good. Good afternoon.

How are you? Well, I listened.

As a Patriots fan, I'm happy to talk all the NFL you want right

now, you know? What's it like to have a nice

franchise to root for? I I haven't, it's been, you

know, I had Barry Sanders for 10 years and they won one playoff

game it. Was it's been hard for the

Patriots. It's been five years since the

the dynasty so. Half a day.

My only contribution to this as a Giants fan is to remind you of

Super Bowls 42 and 46. That's all you need.

That's all you need to do, please.

Oh, man. Well, he joins us.

Are you in New York, Steve, I shouldn't assume around the

holidays that you are in New York because you are always so

generous as to make sure I, I think you've done the happy

hour, for instance, from the backyard of a Florida residence.

And so where are you right now in the world?

I did. I I remember doing your show

once I pulled off of I-84 in Connecticut, But no, I'm not so.

I'm in the I remember Steve pulled over and he was like in a

rental car and trying to get the light above the rearview mirror

to just any lighting at all for the show.

And he's sort of like Steve just just go.

He's like, no, no, we made a time.

I'm going to be here. That's one of those.

I was like this Kornacki guy likes horse racing a little bit

too much. But we did have Steve on during

the summer for our mid year Eclipse Awards.

And it will be interesting to go back and compare the episodes to

see who held on from that early part of the year because

frankly, I went back and looked at mine.

I don't think a single one is going to carry over from the

summer to the end of the year, Sean, which is a pretty

remarkable thing to say. Well, that's just a sign that we

had really good racing all year long, that we had some horses

pop up in the second-half to be competitive with the horses that

were good in the first half. I know my horse of the year pick

held strong all the way through and I will be carrying that

forward. I know probably all of our two

year old picks, not a shot that any of them are still in gear,

but but yeah. But it's it's great to come back

back together, all three of us, and see how this year changed as

it went on. Steve and I were in the same

National Turf Riders and Broadcasters class fall of 22 at

the Keeneland Breeders' Cup. We were voted in, Sean came in

last year. Steve, this is your 4th Eclipse

of vote and I I wanted to get your sort of general approach to

the Eclipse awards. Is there something that you

weigh more than other things when looking at?

For example, let's just start with the horses themselves over

the year, what are you looking for?

Is it top performances? Is it longevity?

Is it a combination? What, what are you most, you

know, as far as when you look at this and sit down for the first

time to determine who you're going to vote for, what do you

really emphasize? Yeah.

I mean, well, what I'm looking for, I think one of the things

I've realized doing this over the last few years, is it it

just the, the realities of modern racing is it's not always

there like at all in some of these categories.

You're looking for sort of a, a thickness of depth in the, in

the resume of, of, of these horses and then a consistency

with that. And then, you know, obviously on

top of that, you know, maybe some like versatility, a horse

who can go, you know, who can go short, who can go long, you

know, against, you know, females, against males, that

sort of thing. But I think one of the realities

just, you know, putting this together year to year is your, I

mean, we'll, we'll talk about this today.

I'm sure you get these categories where it's like,

well, hey, you got, you know, two horses that kind of each ran

one good race and got to give out a championship here, you

know, and that's, that's I, I haven't really corrected

anything. It feels like more than any year

that we voted, Steve, this is our 4th go round of this that

that's the case, right? I think there are 5 or 6

categories frankly where that falls into it.

Frankly, we'll get into one of them very early on in this

broadcast. But Sean, your general approach

this your second year, did you learn something last year that

maybe you wanted to fix? Yeah, I learned not not to vote

for the long distance marathon horse for Older Dirt Male

because only four other people joined me voting next last year

for Older Dirt Male. But but I, I think one of the

key things is a lot, I feel like a lot of people when they're

voting, they really kind of hook on to the grade one wins, like

the number of grade one wins. And those are important as in my

opinion, as a guide. But sometimes there might be a

situation where you know, some of the grade 2 or grade 3 races,

like especially when you look at a track like Keeneland where you

know, all the top horses in the division are pointing toward

that race. Sometimes you have to kind of

account for, you know, some of some of those races as being

maybe not necessarily on the same level of a grade one, But

if there's kind of that point where you have to decide between

two horses and one of those horses has, you know, maybe some

other success and some races like that, they might have less

grade one wins, but they're more deserving of the championship in

my eyes. So you have to kind of use the

grade ones as a guide, but not the end all be all like, oh, I'm

just going to give it to everyone. the Breeders Cup.

Oh, I'm going to give it to whoever won the most grade ones.

That can't always, I necessarily feel like be the end all.

And also, you know, we'll probably delve into this as we

go. We had a lot of great

performances in the Breeders Cup this year from horses like

Forever Young, like Gazora, horses like that.

I personally you have to run multiple times in the North

America in order for me to consider you for these awards.

I think this is the North American Championship awards.

If you just shipped in for the for an international event like

the Breeders Cup 1 and left, I don't really consider you for

any of these awards. So I'm going to be emitting a

couple horses that might have good shots of winning some of

these awards for that reason. But I think that's an important

one to me is we're trying to determine who was North

American's champion. And so for that to happen I

think you have to have run here multiple times.

I'm a little less extreme than Sean on that, but I largely

agree with his last point. My name's Louis Rabohi, Sean

Collins, Steve Kornacki. With us from NBC Sports is Blood

Horse Monday. And this is our Eclipse Award.

And look, all three of us get to vote.

I think we make up exactly half a percent of the total voters in

the thing, something like that. And so about to happen in front

of you folks. And so let's get into it.

We're going to kind of go into round Robin format as we go

through these. Nothing too official about this.

I do want to ask you guys about your methodology though, because

I know Sean Steve has not submitted his votes yet.

I did this last night. I, I did the full submission so

that I would have to just back those things up today.

Have you submitted your eclipse votes which are due I think.

It's 2 days. I have not, so I am persuadable.

That's what, of course. That's what yeah, that's what I

kind of left them open for. I'm like, let me fill them out

as we do the show here. Let me see if Louis or Steve can

persuade me off of 1 horse. I don't know if you will be, but

there's a couple of divisions though that.

Yeah, they're not. I'm still, I'm still like as you

mentioned, we're two days away from the deadline.

There's one or two divisions where I still don't really know

if I've been making the right choice.

And so I could potentially be persuaded there you.

Go. All right, well, I don't want to

be persuaded. How about that?

It's 2025 and darn it all I want.

I don't need persuasion. How about that?

All right, so let's go ahead and get started with two year old

male in the Eclipse Awards. And by the way, there is no

difference between 2 year old dirt male, 2 year old turf male,

any of that sort of stuff. It's just a juvenile award on

the male and female sides. We go to Steve for the first one

here. And this is one of those spots

where if you wanted to, you could poke a shot at top your

list here, right Sean? And and you know, just the one

race here in North America, you could, I said you could.

So that's what you could have. Ted Doffy for sure of the class

of the division so far. Steve, where did you end up

with? Yeah, actually, I, I thought

this was maybe the easiest, you know, of the categories.

I just that Ted Nafi's resume is, is it's complete.

It's as complete as a 2 year old resume could be.

It's, it's, you know, it's unblemished.

And I think just a, a deserving, you know, it's not, it's not a,

it's not a horse who just happened to win the Breeders Cup

juvenile. And, and then you're left

saying, well, there's, you know, there's nothing.

I mean, it's, it's a, it's as complete a resume as you can see

from a 2 year old, I think. So that's that's where I went.

And who else rounded out your top three then?

Steve, let's go ahead and do that.

Whenever you lead off, guys, let's just go ahead and go

through our top three. You know, I, I ended up going, I

think there's just a huge gap here.

One of that, maybe I say this up front, sort of like the way I

think about these awards too, a little bit is since the 2nd and

3rd place votes don't really count towards, you know, the

first, sometimes I'll use it more thinking it's like a like

an honorable mention kind of, you know, thing.

So just sometimes that that might be where these land.

But like I ended up by very uncreatively going to Brant for

2nd place here. Just, you know, did have the win

in the, in the Delmar Futurity, you know, was third, you know,

in the, in the Breeders cup and then, you know, third.

I, I went Paladin in, in 3rd. You know who won the Remsen, you

know, crowded field and in a race, I think it's been pretty,

pretty significant the last couple years.

So I thought, I thought winning it a mile in an eighth at 2 in

that kind of a field, worth a worth a note, a nod.

Sean, I'm assuming you went Ted Noffy as well.

I love Paladin in the third spot.

I looked at him really hard. Who else rounded out your top

three? Two year old male.

Yeah, Ted Nafi definitely was far and away the best 2 year old

this year. Three, what was it?

Three grade one wins, right? The hopeful, the Breeders for

Charity and the Breeders Cup Juvenile was impressive in all

those races, 1 sprinting, 1 routing.

You can't fault him for the year that he had.

So this should be, I think a unanimous award.

I I don't know who else you could possibly put in that spot.

But, but as Steve mentioned, you know, for, for those that don't

know, we are required when we fill these out to fill in the

top three. Only the votes for first place

count toward winning the award, but the other positions kind of

helped to figure out who's going to be nominated when they show 3

nominations for the award. So I, I agree with Steve,

Paladin is my third horse. I actually second horse, I went

to a final score, the Ripoli Horse that won the Bourbon

Stakes at Keene One. I thought he was just the best

turf horse that we had in the US this year.

I don't know what happened where he ended up not being able to

participate in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf.

He was missing from that race. But I thought his win in the

Bourbon, the win before that as well, I thought he was just the

best turf horse that we had. So I put him second, kind of

give some turf representation in this one.

Scares me to death that I went Ted and off the final scorer in

Brant. How about that?

All right, so maybe maybe not so bad at this boys or maybe we're

terrible at it. I'm not sure.

But this is the Eclipse award. We'll find out.

We were going to find out together.

That's exactly right. Steve Kornacki from NBC

alongside Sean Collins. I'm Lou Rabel thanks for hanging

out with us on Blood Horse Monday.

We move on to 2 year old Philly here, Sean.

And this was boy as up and down a division as I can remember in

recent history. And it's one of those divisions

that Steve talked about where a couple of horses with really,

really high end performances on big stages could absolutely win

the the award here. Our our Breeders' Cup winners,

our sigh fare in the turf Sprint and super corridor in the

Juvenile Phillies. Where'd you land though overall

for the entire year, Sean? See, this was a tough one for

me. I actually, I had so on my

little notes, most of the divisions I only named marked

down three horses. This one I marked down five

horses. So I had to narrow it down the

I. We got to a point where I was

going back to November with the Goldenrod Stakes.

Had Explorer not scratched and been able to run in that race

and she won, I probably would have voted her for this because

she was the close second in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Philly.

She was a good second in the Del Mar Debutante.

She was a good winner of the Oak Tree at Santa Anita as well.

So I thought that she was would have been deserving had she had

been able to come back and win a grade two since she scratched.

I was really up in the air on this one.

You know, Super Corridora was, you know, she came out of her

maiden wind when the Breeders kept juvenile Phillies.

You obviously have to give that quite a look.

Sigh. Fair.

You know, she beat the boys in the Juvenile Turf Sprint her

previous races to that though, you know, listed, listed company

in Canada. I don't know how competition

wise how much they really stacked up.

It was a close one for me between Super Corridor and

Cyfair. I ended up going going with

Super Corridor I think as my number one.

So Cyfair close second in this one.

I also just wanted to give a shout out to to Mythical as

well. I don't know if you could

necessarily vote for her as champion with her last two wins

coming in Florida Brit company, but she really only had one bad

race all year and she was in the she was running in stakes

company the entire year from back in the spring all the way

to the end of the year. So I do give a little shout out

to her, but I think my top 3 here are going to be Super

Corridor, A Cypher and Explorer. That's my exact top three,

Steve. I had many of the questions that

Sean did, but the thing that stood out about Cypher that put

her ahead of Explorer for me, Sean.

And by the way, I want to be really, really transparent about

something. I almost kept Explorer at the

top. I almost did it just because I

thought she had a really good year.

Second in the Breeders Cup is not first in the Breeders Cup,

though. And so I went with Super

Corridor on top. I thought the Cypher beating the

boys mattered, Sean, and you'll hear this again for me later,

later as we talk about other awards.

I think beating the boys and beating all her horses matters a

lot, frankly. And I'm sure it's something

we'll get into as we talk about 3 year olds and all that.

But in this case, for sure, I thought Cy Fair's win in that

Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint was great.

I thought Super Corridora was amongst the more dominant

performances at the Breeders Cup and she just happens to be two

years old. So now she's coming into form.

I'm not going to hold that against her. 123 for me is Super

Corridora, Cy Fair and Explorer. Any changes or excuse me, not

changes differences for you Steve?

Well, it's interesting because I said, you know, persuadable at

the start of this and this is 1 where I really wanted to hear

what you guys had to say because I, I agonized much to me it was

between Super Corridora and Cy Fair and I really, really wanted

to put Cy Fair on top. And as of right now, I didn't.

And I and I, I sort of looked at it and said, if, if Cy Fair had

a perfect record, you know, she had that second in the landing.

I'm I'm there, she wins. And given, given the all the

sort of, you know, the situation you guys are all describing

here, but that blemish just kind of kept me from doing it.

And then, you know, I'm doing that thing that I'm not always

nuts about doing where you're just you're putting so much

value on the Breeders Cup race. But again, you know, with two

year olds, you almost you have to, you know, value those so, so

high because you know, just so, so few opportunities for them to

run and, you know, in that kind of in that kind of company.

So ultimately super corridor, who had that like, you know,

sort of eye popping maiden win before and then more than backs

it up in the on the biggest stage.

You know, a 2 year old Philly's going to get you know, beating

the horse who I think was yes, was going to be my top pick at

Explorer won that race would have been everyone's top picks.

So I gave it the Super corridor on those grants.

But wow, I really I, I, I was looking for a reason for wanting

you to say it to get me on to side fair because I was, I was

that close. I think beating the boys, if you

made that case, I don't think Sean or I would fight you about

it at all, right? I mean, if he went with Cyfair,

Sean, I'd be totally acceptable, yeah.

Yeah, I just think it ultimately it comes down to, you know, I

hate to not respect, you know, the turf Sprint division, but

when you're thinking about the champion of an age group, you're

not necessarily thinking about who's sprinting on the grass.

It's just not the most important divisions that we have in the

United States. It's not where we put a lot of

focus is that turf Sprint division.

And so I just, I think her being in that division does take a

little bit away to when you do have her in Super corridor kind

of right next to each other, you're going to lean toward the

Dirt 2 turn Philly rather than the turf Sprint Philly.

So it's a tough choice, but I think ultimately, you know,

Super Corridora just fits more into what we expect a 2 year old

champion Philly to be. 3 year old male is up next.

I'll go first on this one. It follows the news we heard

from Michael Banahan who will join this program next week to

talk about it is the return of sovereignty for 2026.

We are yet to know any of the details of that.

Of course we heard a couple of weeks ago fellow contender for

the eclipse of war journalism will be back alongside horses

like magnitude of Iaison and and so many others from this

three-year old class. And before we get into this, all

of you can, we could all say because we talked a little bit

before the show, we all have sovereignty as the top

three-year old male this year. The Gee.

I wonder why? I was thinking about this last

night and and I got sad because after you win the Derby, there's

only two races you have to run in and he didn't run in either.

He didn't go to the Preakness and he didn't run in the

Breeders Cup Classic. And it, it made me legitimately

sad last night when I was spilling out my votes and

thinking this is so obviously the best 3 year old we have, but

he didn't get to run in those other two spots.

Not the horses fault, of course. And then I think about a

journalism who I have in the second spot.

And Sean, I've been very, very strong on the show about this

point, which is I think journalism saved horse racing in

2025 as far as interest level by going to Baltimore and then

showing up like he did for the Belmont off of the shorter rest,

having run the three races in the shorter compact time that we

have in our traditional Triple Crown at this point.

Part of me wanted to vote for journalism for doing that and

then running an unbelievable sub two O 1 Breeders' Cup Classic.

Lost in the Breeders Cup Classic is how well journalism ran in

that race and how lucky we are to get to watch him in 2026.

Patch Adams comes up third for me, by the way, won the Woody

Stevens, he won the the jerkins and so I'll put him in the third

spot. So 1-2 and three for me,

Sovereignty, journalism and Patch Adams.

Steve, where were you when you heard sovereignty was coming

back? Yeah, Well, I, I mean, I'm,

I've, I guess I've gotten too cynical with this because I

said, you know, my immediate first thought was coming back,

you know, to do what, run 2 races in 2026?

Or are we going to, you know, what are we, what are we going

to see? We'll go, I mean, I assume go to

the Middle East and then is it, you know, But anyway, yes,

obviously thrilled to see the horse run again.

But I carry what I think you're expressing there a little bit

trying to think the right the right word for it.

I don't know if it's bitterness, but like I had the same thought

you did, Louis, that should there be some kind of deduction

here for voluntarily skipping the Preakness?

I mean, you know, this was not an injury situation.

But even with that, you know, the resume was just was just too

strong. And I thought, you know,

journalism to have the Preakness win, to have the Haskell win was

a clear second. I know I put Baeza in 3rd just

because I popping up right behind those, you know, those I

patch Adams, maybe, you know, with unfortunately, if there'd

been another race after, after summer or another win, maybe,

maybe I'd go third there. But I I went probably with the

most obvious top three you could possibly do here.

Sure. Yeah, well, they were top three

in the Derby, they were top three in the Belmont.

I want the exact order sovereignty journalism by Aza.

I think these three just head and shoulders stood above this

three-year old class all year long by Aza.

You know, for me, he gets that third spot because he was right

there with them every race and then when he wasn't with them in

the Pennsylvania Derby, he won and he got his grade one win.

So I put, I put a lot of respect in that.

I just think that these three horses were by far the best 3

year olds of the year, even with Patch Adams running as well as

he did in the Sprint division. I don't want to take anything

away from that, but I think just when you're looking at who who

are the most talented 3 year olds in this crop, no matter

what they were doing, I think it's it's these three, at least

from this season, sovereignty journalism and by ASA.

So they're my 123. The only thing I disagree with

you on Louis is the the 2 two most important races to run in

after the Derby is the Preakness in the Belmont, not the

Preakness in the classic. So he did he did run in one of

those in the Belmont. And you know, I obviously

anybody who's watched this show all year knows I'm a huge

journalism fan. I love that horse.

I would have loved to be able to look at Sovereignty skipping the

Preakness and use that as an excuse to put journalism in the

number one spot. But I mean, Sovereignty beat him

easily twice and handled it. Everyone else that came at him

throughout the summer. And you just have to, even if

journalism had gone on a perfect run the rest of the year, won

the Pacific Classic, won the Breeders Cup Classic, unless

Sovereignty had been in that Pacific or in the Breeders Cup

Classic. I wouldn't have been able to put

journalism above him because I think we know that the top

three-year old in this class is sovereignty because we've seen

him handle these horses before. That's exactly right.

By the way, I'm I know all of us are looking at the same the same

little magazine that we get every year from the Eclipse

committee with all of the past performances of the.

Horses, actually. Oh.

I'm I am not looking at that because every year they ship it

out after I already leave and had Easter for Christmas so I

have yet to actually vote using this.

I have to use the online. Stuff with DRF so I had to.

I had this I own out too. They got I got the wrong address

on mine. Oh jeez, that's a Steve Kornacki

issue. But no.

But just looking at this and the reason I bring it up, guys,

isn't to be snarky or whatever. By the way, when I get this in

the mail, it is I mean, this is when this package arrives.

I, I snag it away from whichever kid went to get the mail, right?

Like get, get, get that to your. I love this thing, but it's like

the stallion registry. Shaw and I just.

I could sit and read this thing for hours and just geek out,

but. Nice nice little I want to go I.

Like it? I want to go through, by the

way, who's on this list that we will see next year?

Baeza. Burnham Square I is disco time

coming back for Brad Cox. I think we're gonna see him

again. I think so.

I think I just saw something that he.

I have not heard. Pointing to something?

Let me see. I yeah, yeah.

I haven't seen a word of Gozger retiring journalism's back

magnitude back Sandman. As a running as of one day

before the Clark Gozger was not retiring and I don't imagine

that's. Changed so Auberton back to Pan

St. back, test score back, Zulu Kingdom back.

I mean, these are, I mean, we're set up for a great 4 year old

campaign from so many of these horses after we got nice and

spoiled this year. Disco time is he's on the work

tab recently, so yeah. So he'll, he'll be back.

Did you mention I don't know if they had him in there because he

was gone for most of the year. Did you mention Tapan St. and

him coming? Back I did yeah.

Yeah, no, I just, I think it's exciting because we're going to

get the mix of what we got this year, which was horses that

showed us something at 3 coming back at 4:00 and then a bunch

that we go what can Tapan St. be eventually when he's at his

best. We saw a little bit of that in

Florida a couple days ago. We'll see what he looks like

certainly as we get later into that Gulfstream Park season

alongside Sean Collins and Steve Kornacki.

My name is Louis Roubo. We move on to three-year old

Philly candidates here on our Eclipse Award show on Blood

Horse Monday and with the three-year old Phillies.

I think an interesting division here.

We go to Steve first for this one.

And I thought Steve, this was one where if you wanted to make

the case for a turf horse, you could.

If you want to do for a for a dirt horse, you could.

Because our first half winner of this was likely good cheer and

boy, it just fell apart for her during the summer and so we had

to throw in a bunch of new ones here.

Would you end up with a three-year old female?

Well, I, I split the I split the difference and I went with a

horse who is both a turf horse and a dirt horse and that's

nitrogen. And you know, I just thought,

look, started out, you know, on the turf, won some, you know,

won some stakes there earlier in the year, then made that surface

switch, you know, when it got rained off on on Belmont day,

you know, had that like, you know, 17 length win.

I mean, it was against like two horses, but then, you know, the

Alabama win running against older, you know, actually, you

know, you know, finishing ahead of torpedo Anna and the

spinster. I mean, I just I think you know

what I was talking about at the start of ideally looking for a

resume that has some depth to it.

You know, a horse that ran a three-year old horse that ran 12

times that has six wins that won on both surfaces that won

against older. I just thought that's that's the

definition of the the kind of resume that that I think I'd

look for for one of these. So I did go with nitrogen in the

top spot in the second spot. I went with she's so spicy on

the strength of that, you know, Breeders' Cup, you know, turf

Sprint and, you know, going against the boys, you know, I

think it sort of distinguishes her that way in the third spot.

And I went with and I still don't know if I'm pronouncing it

right. Is it is it Theon or Theon?

But Theon who did beat nitrogen in in on the turf and had a

very, you know, we talk about again, like a a deep resume, you

know, with a lot of races, a lot of success.

And I thought that was worthy of of inclusion too.

Shaw, where'd you land in this class?

Well, I just want to point out on Steve's, Steve's ballot

there, let's just take a moment to appreciate how good our turf

forces were this year. The fact that all all three of

Steve's picks this year for the three-year old Philly, we're all

running on grass at some point this year.

I feel like that's something we rarely ever see.

So that's just really how strong our our turf forces were this

year. So hopefully that can continue

building as we go to the future. I went with nitrogen on top as

well. This is one of those ones where

I mentioned, you know, sometimes some of those races that aren't

necessarily grade ones, you can still kind of look at them and

count them as grade ones because nitrogen when she won the

Appalachian and the the Edgewood, you know, those those

are grade 2 races. But that's something that all

the top three-year old turf Phillies in the country at that

time of year are going to point to.

I mean, look at how good a year lush lips had in the second-half

of the season once nitrogen went to the dirt.

And so, you know, so you know, that's where, you know, I kind

of consider those, even though she didn't win a grade one on

the turf this year, she lost the Belmont Oaks by a nose.

I kind of keep those at the same level as a grade one because I

know that's where all the top horses in the division are

pointing toward. So then when you have those wins

in that race and then you come off, come off the turf, you run

on the dirt in the Alabama, you beat good cheer, you beat Lakara

in that race. All of our top dirt Phillies,

you beat them there, you come back, you almost win the

spinster against Alder, you beat Torpedo Anna, you come back and

run second in the Breeders Cup Distaff in a 14 horse race.

By the way, there were twelve other horses behind her.

And so yeah, I just think she from start to finish, she had

the best year for sure. I ended up landing on La Cara in

the second spot. I did want to just give her some

credit. She won the she won two grade

one, she won the Ashland. She came back and won the the

acorn on Belmont weekend as well.

I know she was kind of hit or miss at certain times of the

year, but I did want to give her a little bit of credit and I put

her, it was tough for me to put her above she's so spicy.

But I just feel like some of the some of the earlier races that

she's so spicy was running and at the beginning of the year

didn't necessarily match up to the same competition Lucara was

running against. So even though she did beat the

boys in the turf Sprint, I just couldn't put her above Lucara.

It really pained me to, I mean, you know, at the beginning of

the year, Louis, how big of a good cheer fan I was.

It really pained me that I had to leave her out as we got to

the end of the year, but that's where that's where I ended up.

That's why we do 2 votes a year for sure.

I went a different direction. I did put She's so spicy on top

and here's why. I think beating the boys and

older males in a Breeders' Cup race matters.

I also think she wanted Gulfstream, Keeneland,

Churchill, Kentucky Downs and Del Mar this year.

I appreciate that kind of versatility.

Steve mentioned it earlier too. She ran 7 times this year.

She won five of them. Her blemish blemish is on dirt

at Oak Lawn and in Ask It like, OK, and so no, I'm not going to

hold that against her. And I know, and Sean said this

earlier about another division and I and I understand the

rationale about maybe not just turf sprinting for, you know,

the top spot. I think her resume matches up

with with what we want for an eclipse winner in this kind of

category. And so I have her on top.

I have nitrogen in my second spot like Steve.

I have Fiona in the 3rd and Steve mentioned something

earlier that I do as well with my boats is when you get into

that second and third spot, the honorable mention thing or

whatever, maybe a great performance.

Her setting the track record in the Belmont Oaks Invitational at

Saratoga matters to me. And so I I put her in the third

spot because I think she deserves recognition for that.

What's incredible to me guys, is think about the fact that I did.

I don't think any of us mentioned Killwin, who had an

unbelievably great test blush. Lift is going to win a grade one

second in the Del Mar Oaks, win the Misses Revere and she's

going to win at Keelan and Churchill, run second at Delmar

and and she might not even make the top three.

It was a a really great year, Steve, for three-year old

Phillies. Yeah, no.

And and I, I Lakara just listened to Sean make the case

there. That's, you know, I, I, I had

looked at her. As well.

So, yeah, yeah. No, just and let's also, let's

also appreciate Scottish Lassie and that dominating CCA oak.

She had to. Yeah, and a bunch of great a

bunch of great performances too, like the Fion, the Scottish

Schlassie, like we saw those as well in that group.

So really, really fun that way. We move on to older dirt male

and I thought one of the more confusing divisions.

Luckily Sean goes 1st and I can make fun of him for his terrible

after he's done. But this is our Eclipse show

here on Blood Horse Monday. Steve Kornacki, Louis Ravoshawn

College. Sean, what say you about older

dirt Male? Let's make you know what this is

your chance to really upset your editor and Frank ganks.

Go ahead. Hi, this is the Division I

mentioned earlier where I don't know if I'm making the right

choice in this division. This was completely wide open.

So again, the preface what I said earlier in the show Forever

Young is a toss for me. He only ran once in the US.

He was not AUS based horse. So I immediately just cancel him

out. It's as if he doesn't exist.

So when I'm looking at this award, so and essentially in my

mind, it boils down to one of three horses that's the same 3

the three horses that well, two of these horses that we were

concerned about last year and having almost the exact same

debate for the champion 3 year old.

It's either fierceness, mind frame or Sierra Leone for me.

And the part where I struggle is they all, you know, like

fierceness one more than Sierra Leone did, but Sierra Leone beat

fierceness the two times they faced each other.

And then, you know, mind frame beats Sierra Leone and the

Whitney, but Sierra Leone beats and the Stephen Foster.

But then Sierra Leone beats mind frame in the Breeders cup

classic. But mind frame also has the

grade one win sprinting against the likes of nice host and Bucum

Dano and you know that that incredible field that he did.

So it's a really tough choice. So I think ultimately I'm even

though it, it's just, it's, it's hard for me to pick him because

he only won once this entire year.

But I just think again, the consistency of Sierra Leone is

just you gotta, he always showed up every time.

I do think he want to win the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

If he did not have, if the whole incident at the start didn't

happen. I, I do, I, so I kind of in my

mind count that as like 1 1/2 wins this year.

And I know probably a lot of people might argue about him

having the, having the pacesetter.

I really don't think that ended up impact the contrary thinking

being in those races. I really don't think ended up

really impacting whether or not he won because he, as we saw

last year, he showed up every time regardless.

But I think I just got to go with him.

He was the most consistent. He, you know, I, I do put a lot

of respect into fierceness shipping all the way across the

country and winning the Pacific Classic, but Sierra Leone

beating him in both of their meetings this year in the

Whitney and the Breeders Cup. I just, I have to go Sierra

Leone. So I, I feel bad picking a horse

that only won once this year in the top spot for this award, but

I got to put him first, fierceness second and mine frame

third on last. As I mentioned, I haven't

submitted this yet, so if one of you 2 can convince me otherwise,

I'm I'm I'm persuadable in this one.

All right. So this is how I know we had a

great division. I don't have any of those three

of my top three. Wow.

All right, so. They asked us to wait until

Malibu Day to vote on this thing and I'm glad they did because

I'm going to vote for Nisos for Older Dirt Male this year and

here's why I'm going to do that. Nisos came off of a 13 month

layoff and almost won the Churchill Downs in absolute slop

over 7 furlongs off the layoff. He then went to Santa Anita and

ran in the Triple Bend and it was a paid workout.

That's a grade three. He ran in A2 turn San Diego

Handicap which is a grade 2. That as well was a paid workout.

And then he runs up against a horse and Citizen Bull that is

headed to the Breeders Shed who needed that race to make him a

stallion and ran the fastest. I probably see the horse run in

person. And he still went ahead and won

the Breeders Cup. And then they run him back after

that race and he wins yesterday against another very good

stablemate from the Baffert barn at Del Mar, or excuse me, at

Santa Anita. So he wins at Santa Anita, he

wins at Del Mar, he wins. It runs a good second at

Churchill this year. Unlike Sean, who's going to vote

for a horse that won once this year, I'm going to vote for a

horse that won four times this year, one of them in a Grade 1.

And unfortunately, I think if he wins the Churchill Downs, I

think it's a much easier conversation for these things

for sure. But I do still think of the

Churchill Downs as one of the two or three best races this

year. My second place horse in this

division is Book of Dano. And the reason is I think if you

sweep those three races at Saratoga, it matters.

And so I'm going to hold up. The four go the Vanderbilt and

the True North as those races. He was a neck off of that

Churchill Downs as well. And so I will put him second and

then because the best race I saw in person this year was the

Breeders Cup Classic. The winner of that race was

Forever young. He gets the third spot for me.

So again, Nicos book him Dano and forever young.

So there you go, Sean. There you go, buddy.

You and I did a show for 48 episodes and came to completely

different conclusions. I'll let Steve put in his.

Before I give my argument against Isos, there you go.

Go ahead, Steve. Yeah, I went contrary thinking

and no, no, no. I, I know the way I ended up

looking at this, I agonized kind of along the same lines Sean

did. And the way I kind of settled it

was my top three are Mine Frame, Sierra Leone and Book em Dano.

But so Mine Frame has the Sprint win over Book Em Dano in the

Churchill Downs and has the route win over Sierra Leone in

Foster. So I would like to have seen

more in the second-half of the year, you know, from mine frame,

certainly in the Breeders Cup. But I mean, you could kind of

toss the one before. But that to me, given, you know,

all the realities of this, of this category this year is

enough to put Mine frame number one.

I'll make Sierra Leone #2 I think on the strength of of just

that consistency Sean talked about.

And then Book Em. Dano is number 3 for me.

Go ahead. Sean Yeah, well, I do, I do like

him picking mind frame in in the top spot.

My my big thing with mind frame was I would have had he finished

closer in the classic, I would have, I would have probably

picked him. But he he was just too far

behind both Sierra Leone and fierceness for me to really

consider him, even with everything he did the first half

of the year. But that was a tough choice.

My only argument with you, Louis, as far as Nicos goes is I

just don't, I don't feel like, you know, the outside of the

Dirt Mile and obviously that strong second that he had at

Churchill Downs. I don't necessarily feel like he

was facing the best horses. I would have felt better if he

ran in the Pacific Classic instead of scratching and was

able to we could see what he would have done against

fierceness and journalism. But I just think, you know, even

though Sierra Leone and fierceness were getting beat at

in certain races, I felt like they were getting beat by better

horses than when Nisos was beating.

I mean, you think fierceness, losing a raging torrent in the

in the Met Mile. You know, some of these big

names, I just felt like they were they were in deeper waters

throughout most of the year, which is why, even though Nicos

has been very impressive this year and he's been picking up

the wins and I think he's probably I I would say at this

moment in time, I would think sovereignty and Nicos are the

two fight already fighting for next year's older horse award.

So we'll see how that goes. I just I couldn't include him on

that because I just felt like that Sierra Leone fierceness

mind frame. They were in the deepest waters

for the entire year. We move on to older dirt female.

I get to go first on this one. And when you talk about who they

faced and when they faced them and all the things, Sean, I

think it definitely comes into this conversation.

But at the end of the day, it was impossible for me to look

past a win in the Personal Ensign, a win in the Fertile EA,

win in the Apple Blossom and a win in the Azeri for Torpedo

Anna. I know we didn't get to see her

in the Breeders Cup Distaffed this year, which was won by

Cilla. It was her first win of the

year. I'm still 1/3 by the way,

because I do think winning the distaff matters and she was if

that her it's she's so spicy. I think were the wow

performances of the Breeders Cup.

You might throw in Ethical Diamond just cause of the price

and the fact that he he beat rebels romance by a couple

lengths or whatever. But I think no, no, no, you're

only throwing him in because you picked him ahead of.

Time you're the only. One who did.

That's why you're throwing him in there.

Be honest. We'll talk about him later and

the the eclipse vote for for Churchvale anyways.

So yeah, but I have said them in the third spot.

I get it. Torpedo.

Anna didn't get to finish her season.

And frankly, I don't think the spinster is how a horse of her

quality Sean or a horse of her quality Steve should ever go out

right. But in sports, so often it's

not. You don't go out like Coach K

and Nick Saban. You go out like everyone else.

And unfortunately she did as well, but I went with her first

and then in second I went to Cavalieri.

And Sean better not have Cavalieri after what he just

said about Nisos in his top three.

And so there's a horse undefeated this season, 1, the

La Canada, 1 the Beholder Mile, and 1 the Zenyatta.

Another one that I would have loved to have seen in the

Breeders Cup Distaff, but I think she's incredibly talent.

None of her wins were ever in question.

I think she's that great. I put Solo 3rd for that win in

the Distaff. And I'm leaving out a bunch of

horses that I really like here, including, I think a Splendora

is a really interesting candidate for top three.

And so if someone puts her in their top three, I would not

argue with them whatsoever. But Steve or no Sean Sean's,

excuse me, Sean, your reaction to Jeff Thorpito up top?

Yeah, I did. And I I, yeah, I had Torpedo in

on top. As he mentioned, those races,

the Florida League is one that, you know, it's a grade 2, but my

mind, that's still a grade one race.

That's a major race that people target.

And, you know, with winning the Apple Blossom, with winning the

personal ends, and especially the way she won the personal

ends. And, you know, you have to, you

have to give her that credit. And the thing that confirmed it

for me was I was like, all right, is there an option to put

ahead of Torpedo Anna? When I was looking at these and

I realized when I was looking for the option to put ahead of

Torpedo Anna, I had zero options at who I wanted to put in

second. I had absolutely no idea who I

thought was worthy of being in second place here.

So that that confirmed to me that I should put Thorpedo in on

the top spot. I ended up for 2nd place.

I did end up settling on Cap. You say it because I can never

say this. One Cavalieri.

You know, the horse that deserves Cavalieri.

Like nice host, deserves to be first.

Keep going. No, but I, I told you before the

show, I actually when I was looking at it, I came up with my

reason as to why I was not going to include her and I realized I

didn't have any reasons for anybody else.

So I had to put her in. I'll get I'll give her the nod

that, you know, she was undefeated this year and three

through 3, she was dominant in those.

So she'll get my second spot and I the third spot.

I'm debating whether or not I put Cilla because as you

mentioned, the Distaff matters, but we all kind of saw that the

track that day seemed to be pretty speed favoring.

She got the lead and just kept going that day.

She did not win anything ahead of that.

I didn't know whether or not I should necessarily really count

that. I know Seismic Beauty's effort

in the Distaff really wasn't that good, but she had a good

couple of races before that. So I'm, I'm torn between Seismic

Beauty or Sila for the third spot.

That's kind of where I where I ended up.

All right, Steve, who's your top 3 here?

Yeah, no, I mean, I, I went with Thorpedo Anna too.

Didn't think it was, you know, it was very close and it was I,

I was at that. I know you were too.

I was at that spinster. And it was kind of amazing how

the entire world in that division just changed in like 5

minutes. You're like in the middle of the

race. You're like, wait a minute.

She's kind of, you know, she's losing ground on the turn here.

And then she's retired like 5 minutes later.

And it was just like, you know, we, we were there for NBC.

We were talking up, you know, well, this is her prep for the

Breeders Cup and this all this stuff.

So that was just it's still my head still start kind of

spinning from from how that all changed.

But still, yeah, the resume towers.

I think, you know, like Sean's saying huge gap the second so

big that I really I I just I opted for Silla second just on

the grounds. The Silla ends up winning the

distaff and ends up finishing ahead of torpedo in a in that

spinster and you know, had had I think you know, had not one

during the year, but I think was consistent during the year was

consistently competitive throughout the year at a high

level and 3rd. I actually I ended up with with

Copian, you know, had the Sprint win, the the big, I think

impressive Sprint win in the the Derby City Distaff start of the

year. We can talk a little bit about

this maybe more in, in, in that category, the female Sprint

category. But I just thought Kobe into me

was sort of the what if horse. I think some some different

decisions about where to run her or where not to run her.

It might have resulted in a very different campaign, you know,

going up against the boys, for instance, in the, in the

Breeders Cup. But I, I, I thought just on the

strength of that, that Derby City Distep and, and some of the

other just sort of consistency she generally showed she, she

deserved third there. Male Sprint candidates up next,

Steve Kornacki will go first, he's from NBC Sports.

Sean Collinsley, you're both alongside as well from Blood

Horse Monday, our hopefully annual visit with Steve about

the Eclipse Awards. He was always already nice

enough to join us during the summer for our mid season

awards. Male Sprint TER Steve, who'd you

end up on? I went with the Jersey bread.

You know, maybe this will be some discussion on this one.

I I don't know how I know. Seems like there's a lot of

debate here on idea. What do you value more here that

stand out performance for Ben Tornado in the, you know,

Breeders' Cup Sprint versus a much versus a significantly more

expansive resume with book em Dano.

And again, I said at the start, that's what I'm looking for

primarily, and I think I see that with book em Dano.

Again, they voluntarily skipped the Breeders Cup.

You know, it was not an injury situation.

So I it does enter my mind, you know, I, I think the sort of the

management of these horses can enter into this.

But even even with skipping that, to have those three wins

this summer at Saratoga, the first horse ever to, you know,

pull that off. I, I just think there was and to

be we talked about that, that race on Derby day, you know, the

Churchill Downs, which to me that was the, the, the, the best

race I watched this year. And to be right there, you know,

with mine frame with Nisos in that one and banishing, you

know, I I not that banishing flatters the profile much, but.

He did at the. Top yeah, so he's banishing with

my big dark horse Sprint Sprint pick this year in the Breeders

cup. Still waiting for him to finish,

but yeah. So I book a banner to me with

really number one. I I've been to or not.

It was look, no knock on that. I mean it was a great

performance in the Breeders cup. That's for number 2 for me and

#3 I just, I didn't really know where to go here, although you

mentioned waiting until the the scene Anita Card and I did and

goal oriented, you know, was going to be, you know, third for

me, but an extremely, extremely distant. 3rd All right, so book

them. Daniel Ben Tornado, his top two

there. Double BS if you will.

Sean, where'd you land? I landed.

See, this was a tough one for me because I don't necessarily

think the horse that I'm putting first is better than the horse

that I put a second. But but what we never got to see

him face off. So don't know if that that'll be

true or not. I, I had to put book him Dano

first. I love Ben Tornado, I think he

is a superb talent. I think Jose Deangelo's done a

fantastic job with him, but he didn't start until September and

he ran 2 races this year and the race that he ran in in September

was a list was Listed Stakes, Black Type Stakes.

So I can't, I can't put that up against what Bochumdano did at

the summer at Saratoga. Now, I don't necessarily put as

much into the fact that he's the first horse to win all three of

those races in the same season at Saratoga, just purely because

the true North's not usually at Saratoga.

That's usually a race that's at Belmont.

But because of everything getting shifted around, it's up

at Saratoga this year. So I don't put too much into

that. Fact but.

The fact that he did go through all three of those races, you

know, Saratoga is going to have some of the toughest competition

you're going to face all year long.

And so for him to go through all three of those races up there on

the big weekends that he did that that to me, even though he

didn't run in the Breeders Cup Sprint, he faced the quality of

a Breeders' Cup Sprint, I think multiple times.

And so I got to put him on top for winning all three of those

those races. Matt, as Steve mentioned, it was

a little bit like as we talked about the sovereignty earlier in

the Preakness, the fact that he skipped the Breeders Cup Sprint

does kind of leave a little sour taste in your mind.

But I think he proved enough, especially with that run to

Churchill Downs facing everyone there.

I just think he proved enough that he should he was should get

this award based off of year long accomplishments.

But I do think Ben Tornado is probably the better talent.

As we move into next year. We'll see whether or not that's

true. And Patch Adams I put in 3rd.

OK, I have same top two book of Daniel Ben Tornado.

I went Booth 3rd and this is this is I got to see the horse

in person bias. I watched him win the Maryland

Sprint and I thought it was really impressive And there you

go. So he did at one point win 4

stakes in a row, three of them graded and then was second in

the Jeff Hill at Jeff Hall. Excuse me at at Ellison.

So I know I just I thought he was cool horse this year when I

think 6 furlongs on the dirt, I think Steve Asmussen.

So there you go went with him third for the same reason Steve

went somewhere else there because I just had to pick a

third horse. So there you go.

We move on to the the next category, of course, will be

female sprinters. We go to Sean first for this

one. Sean, where'd you land on this

one? This is an interesting category

because I think you could make the case, oh, man, probably for

three or four of the the Phillies and Bears in this

division. And frankly, grass, dirt, I

mean, you're gonna have to make a decision there as well.

Where'd you land? Well.

I can't wait to hear you make those 3 or 4 cases cuz this is a

clear cut 11 case for me. And that was she's so spicy

beating, beating older, beating boys and the Breeders Cup Turk

Sprint on that stage facing an international cast as well.

Your Europeans that came over to run in that race.

I think she has to be #1 in here AG Bullet beat the boys and the

Giper. She beat the boys again in the

Breeders Cup Turf Sprint just happened to be second best to

she's so spicy that day. So I have her in the second spot

and then Hope Road. I just felt like even though she

only got like a one grade one win in in the ballerina and she

just won recently at Del Mar as well.

I just felt like she always showed up where in some of these

other other some of the other Phillies, I felt like that were

kind of on top of the dirt female division.

They had a race or two where they didn't show up as well.

But I felt like Hope Road was always, always there.

So the fact that she did win to grade one at Saratoga and the

fact that she always showed up and really all the big races for

that division this year, that's why I put her in 3rd.

But this one for me, it was pretty simple.

She's so spicy and AG Bullet. I I decided that that one on

November 1st as soon as they crossed the finish line in in

that race in the Breeders Cup Turf spread, that those would be

my top 2 picks in this one. I have She's so spicy as well.

And that puts me having her with two Eclipse awards if I'm right,

which is pretty incredible. But I think it would be

absolutely appropriate for how good of a year she had, frankly,

at 5 different tracks winning and all of those things.

The only difference I have with you, Sean, I have Splendora 3rd

just because of the effort in the in the Breeders Cup.

The the problem for her is the tranquil lake is a mile.

Like it's not a spread like all the things, right?

I mean, so like her resume is tough to get to that point.

Yeah, no, I get it. And so I put her I put her third

for that reason because I still that race still matters to me.

But some of the other ones I was thinking of like Swedish Tech is

undefeated this year. She just didn't run a lot.

People love. Oh gosh, I just lost you.

I was going to mention you, Sean.

Oh, praying. I know that the effort at the

Breeders Cup wasn't great, but the TCA is a big boy.

That's a big girl race, big boy, big girl race there.

And then before that, of course, the Prioress.

I don't know. I think praying is another one

of those Steve, where you could have her in the top three.

And and I mean, if you want to go out West, Queen Maximus doing

the thing too. Where did you land your top 3

here? Yeah, I know she's so spicy.

Think you guys, you know, made the made the case there.

I also have, you know, AG bullet second, just, you know, partly

just on the strength of of she's so spicy and running second to

her, you know, in the Breeders Cup and that Chyper win.

I think the Chyper win, you know, definitely to to me merits

inclusion here. And then I just I mentioned her

a minute ago, but I just I put Kobe on 3rd again, that beating

Hope Road. Yeah, I think dominantly in that

Derby City distaff, you know, start of the year.

And and again, just if, if you to me, you look at the resume,

you know, they end up putting her around 2 turns.

I I mean, she had a, there was a race at Losal where I think she,

you know, she had sort of a bad break.

They put her around 2 turns. They ran her against the boys.

It was a big kind of a a strange what if second-half of the

season for her, but enough to make her third, I thought.

There you go, move on to male turf candidates.

And of course, this is where all of us should be voting Ethical

Diamond on top. Except that I won't be doing

that and Sean certainly won't be doing that on one race.

Of course, shocking in North America.

Unfortunately, Ethical Diamond did not make my top three and I

will tell you why. I have notable speech winning

the Eclipse Award for top turf horse in North America and here

is why. I think the two races that that

horse won are in the top five of most important turf races in

North America. For me, I think of the Woodbine

Mile as their best race of the year every year.

And I think of the Breeders Cup Turf Mile on that side as being

one of those races where it it isn't just Europeans that have a

chance at a mile, I feel like Americans have a chance as well.

It's almost like an extended two turn Sprint most of the time.

And so I think of both of those races as very, very high level

races. It's also Charlie Appleby, it's

also Bill Buick, it's also good dolphin.

I think all the connections matter as well.

Give me notable speech on top of this division.

And then I went a little off the board here with my second one.

But Speaking of Mylers, I think Deterministic deserves a stop a

spot in the top 3 here out of the Clement Barn.

This is one that won the Fort Marcy, won the Manhattan and

then won the four-star Dave. And the four-star Dave falls

into one of those top five races for me as well in American turf

racing. And this is a horse that just

frankly got better as the year went along as well.

And I think is a real compliment to how well the the the Clement

Barn was set up. You know, despite all of the the

obvious distractions going on with Kristoff's health and and

deterministic, I think isn't just a good story.

I think he's a great horse. And so that's that four year old

son William's map will land second for me.

And then I went to the old man. I I went to rebels romance.

I I think the turf classic was really, really a tremendous show

of what he's capable of. And then he comes back and I

thought he was really good in the turf and just ran into Louis

pick for the Breeders Cup Turf. And so, you know, no one's

beating that. And so, yeah, so I'll go 123

here. Notable speech, deterministic

and rebels romance and I forget who goes after me.

I think it's Steve. But Steve, go ahead.

Tell where did you land? Am IA crazy person?

It's funny, it's this is like me and Sean with those Patriot

giant Super Bowls. Me and you, Louie.

Our memory of this Breeders' Cup Turf race couldn't be more polar

opposite because like my entire weekly go throughout, Rebels

will be winning that the ethical diamond come flying through.

It's just. Believe me, as soon as I saw it,

I was like he was. I see Louis was telling, but

that serves me right. That serves me right.

No, listen, you just, you basically just read the exact

same list I have, you know, the exact same reasons.

I, I, you know, this, this is part of that issue.

I think of, you know, the, the limited starts in North America.

How much would that be a consideration?

I, I have a pretty concrete policy where it's only one.

I'm not going to do it if it's two.

It's got to be special. And I think you're right.

It's special with notable speech and I think it's special enough

with Rebels romance in that third spot, you know, to, to

have the win in New York and to have the near miss in the

Breeders Cup Turf, you know, against just the, the, the

beasts that are in that race. And, and so I, I thought it's

enough to go on that list. But yeah, deterministic two

grade one wins. That's one more here than, you

know, the Rebels romance had in North America.

So I, I thought that's, that's, that's good for second in my

book. Wow, I can't believe Steve and I

landed on the same three horses here.

Sean, be different. Go.

I'm not going to be too different.

So notable speech. Notable speech does qualify for

me because of his second start. So just like Steve now and I, I

like what Steve said there. If it's gonna be two races, it's

gotta be special. And as you mentioned, Louie, the

Woodbine Mile and the Breeders Cup mile are really two of the

top races on this continent for, for for your turf forces.

And so, you know, it's I actually, I, I think I had more

of a debate between him and deterministic than it sounded

like you had. I really did consider

Deterministic because he was North American based.

Had he won maybe one more race I would have given it to him.

But when he look at his two grade ones, I look at notable

speeches, 2 grade ones as being better races than

deterministics. And I don't think that the grade

two win that Deterministic had before that gets him elevated

above, you know, the fact that the Woodbine Mile and the

Breeders Cup Mile are the two top two of the top races.

I'm on the turf in this continent, so I had to go with

notable speech barely on top over Deterministic.

If they want to roll Deterministic out real quick and

run him in an allowance race tomorrow to get him another win,

go for it and I might put him on top.

But my third spot, my third spot, I was debating between

Formidable Man and Fort Washington here.

OK, Fort Washington had a couple couple nice wins early in the

year. He got the Arlington Million win

and formidable, formidable man. He won the Frank Kilro Mile

early in the year. That's a Grade 1.

He had two very good grade two wins out there at Del Mar, was

second behind notable speech in the Breeders Cup Mile as well.

So I gave I gave him a strong look for that third spot and I'm

going to give him that third spot.

So formidable if man is my third here.

I was hoping rhetorical would finish a little bit better

because I I I really liked our our our interview with Will and

and I thought that was a really, really cool horse.

I was really hoping he would jump up for better than fourth

in that race. But yeah, a really cool

division. Actually this year.

I mean, I think about some of the, you know, some of the

performances we got in this division, like Spirit of Saint

Louis and the American Turf was just in turf class.

Excuse me, was, was just so dynamite and and you know, just

some of these, you know, Salamis out West in that Hollywood

Derby. I mean, just so many good horses

in this in this group and Zulu Kingdom as a three-year old,

just really, really tremendous. So fun, fun stuff there.

We move on the female turf side of thanks, Steve Kornacki from

NBC News, NBC Sports. Excuse me alongside us, Shawn

Collins, Louie robot with you on Blood Horse Monday.

We go to Steve for the female turf.

And this is an interesting one because look, we've already

mentioned that she's so spicy could have been on this show,

Steve. And I'm wondering if she's going

to get another first place vote out of this group.

Yeah, she's not going to get a first place vote here from me,

but she's definitely in the mix for me.

I, I, I, I just really in this one couldn't get past.

She feels pretty, you know, I, I, I just thought that, you

know, had the EP Taylor up at, up at Woodbine, had the win at

Saratoga, had that, you know, incredible stretch battle in the

Diana where she just, you know, lost out to, to Excellent truth.

Second, you know, in the, in the Philly Amir turf at the, at the

Breeders Cup. So I just super, super quality,

super, super consistent kind of across the board.

So, yeah, I made her number 1 and I went, she's so spicy #2

here and again, I think for kind of all the reasons we've been

talking about during this during the show.

And then my third choice ends up being the horse I just

mentioned. Excellent.

Truth. Who did have the win in the

Diana, you know, over? She feels pretty, I think had a

very, very tough break earlier in the year and a grade one at

Keeneland that she, yeah, I think could easily have won and

kind of a year that was cut short.

But I thought, I thought 3rd place, you know, especially

being able to beat the winner in the category made sense for her.

Three races, $471,000 in earnings for Excellent Truth.

Not a bad way to make a living, Sean.

She feels pretty on top for you. Yes, she is.

I just felt like she had, I mean, she, she started the year

with the grade three win and then she was in grade one

competition the entire rest of the year.

She won two of them. Her two defeats were by small

margins, including a very strong second in the Philly and Mare

Turf at the Breeders Cup. And so I just felt like she, she

was the best Turf force this year.

She's so spicy. Is my #2 pick in here.

I debated between AG Bullet and Theonne as the third horse in

here. I ended up giving the slight

edge to AG Bullet just off of beating the boys in the Jaipur.

Can't believe it. We're gonna go ahead and sweep.

She feels Pretty will be my top spot here as well.

She's so spicy. Came in second in the case for

Lush Lips in 3rd here, winning the QE 2, which I think of as

the top. Oh man, where do I put?

I love this time of year because it makes me reevaluate.

It's almost like you're the graded stakes committee in your

own head of which race has matter to you the most.

And in this case, you know, alongside races like the

Kentucky Oaks and that kind of thing.

I think of the QE 2 as one of those races that everybody

points for. Sean, you were talking about

that, you know, grade one or not.

This one happens to be a grade one, but this is one that

everybody wants to win, right? And so the fact that she

wouldn't got that done is so, so important to me.

In that case, wins the Mrs. Revere after that with wins at

Delmar, excuse me, with wins at Tampa, Keeneland and Churchill

Downs this year. I thought she was worthy of a

third place inclusion in that division.

We move on after the female turf to owner and of course, if you

are new to the Eclipse awards or new to that, we'd love for you.

By the way, if you have not started and you're watching on

YouTube or Spotify, go ahead get in those comments.

Tell us where we're right. Tell us where we're wrong.

Call Sean a bum. All the good things that you can

do online and go to odor here. Sean, we go to you first and

this has become a touch of a boring category here, but I

would love to hear what your top three.

You know, if if you are like Steve and me, where you know,

the they're like little quirky things can get you in a second

or third spot in here, because I I always find myself voting for

a very specific owner when we get to the top three.

And I will give the rationale later.

But Sean, you go first. Did you go with Go Dolphin?

I did go with Go Dolphin yes, I mean you just looking at the

stats I'm I, I don't have my little handy booklet there in

front of me. So I got I got to pull this up

here. Looking at the stats by owners

ranked by earnings their first with 22 million and 2nd place

Klarevich Staples has 6.7 million.

I mean you just you can't ignore that.

On top of that, they were fourth in the nation by wins and graded

graded wins. They had 22.

The next next closest was spendthrift at 10.

So they just they just dominated across the board success in the

Triple Crown, having sovereignty and good cheer, winning the Oaks

and the Derby on the same weekend, a success in the

Breeders Cup notable speech. So I just had I had to go with

good dolphin here at the one spot, the two spot.

As you mentioned, sometimes quirky little things can get you

in here. And as we mentioned, kind of

these second and third spots are sometimes you're vulnerable

mentions. So I'm gonna give that to the

journalism team for running him in as many races as they did

here. Obviously they had a lot of

success on top of just running him in the races.

But I just think that the fact that they were willing to run

him, especially cuz I'd love to discount skipping the Preakness.

And you know, against get it off in, but their year was just too

dominant. So having them on top, I think

it's important to put the journalism team in second.

So that would be eclipse serve bread partners, Bridlewood farm,

Don Alberto stable, Robert Lepenta, Lane Stables 5 and then

the cool more team as well. So I'm going to have fun typing

all those names into the ballot here in a couple minutes.

But but yeah, so I that that's where I ended up on the second

one. Third.

I went Spendthrift. They had a pretty good year as

well. I think back to that dominating

weekend or start to the not not just weekend, the start to the

Keeneland meet that they had where they were winning

everything at Keeneland that they that they had running their

10 graded wins on the year, 6th grade ones.

They have the likely champion 2 year old and Ted Nafi.

And so I'll give them the number three spot here.

I've spent their second for all the reasons that you just said,

I think that weekend at Keeneland and that's the big

weekend in the fall of Keeneland, right?

And they did it over that weekend.

So it's not a Steve was there. I mean, if NB CS there, it's a

big deal. It was that weekend for sure in

Keeneland and and and Spencer was unbelievable, frankly, that

day. I always give Bruko Shiken dance

a spot because he runs the most horses in North America.

And when you read all of these things, by the way, and I'm not

making this up, go to bloodhorse.com right now.

Forecast for 2026. What are we gonna get together

in horse racing? Everything's about field size.

You know what you need in field size?

You need owners to run their horses.

And Bruno does that every year. Over 1100 starts this year alone

as an ownership group. For example, Godolphin will not

hit 500 this year. And so I just want people to

know that this guy is involved. He is running horses and I think

that is worthy of being on my ballot.

He has now been on the ballot all four years.

So congratulations to Bruno. Steve, where'd you go?

123 here. So I talked earlier about

wanting there to be some kind of a deduction for not running in

the Preakness. I mean, we are talking about the

Eclipse Awards, which are about American racing, about North

American racing. And I think there's really, you

know, from a fan standpoint, there is nothing more central to

American horse racing than the Triple Crown.

And I the stats on Godolphin tower, they tower this year,

they tower every year. If we're just giving it out on

stats, I I have to give it to Godolphin.

But I don't think this award should go just on the stats.

And I think a an ownership group that made a willful voluntary

decision to take a horse who won the Kentucky Derby and who was

sound and they said was totally capable of coming back and

running in the Preakness. I think given the importance of

that race, given the state of racing, horse racing in this

country right now, I think when an ownership group makes the

decision still not to run and seems to indicate that their

priorities might be more overseas than American, I don't

think they should get the Eclipse award for owner of the

year. So for that reason, I have to

look up and read the exact name because I know it's eclipse and

and Sean said it eclipsed bridal with Donald Berto.

La Quinta. The journalism team did it the

way you're supposed to do it this year.

So I think this is the category where that should be noted and

rewarded. So I put them first, I'm putting

Godolphin second, and I came to this conversation to get a

clever idea for third. Maybe I'll use yours though,

Louis. There you go, a little Bruno, or

maybe a little a little spendthrift, who knows?

Yeah, you got to go a lot of those for there.

I appreciate your candor, Steve, because I agree with you.

I'm certain now you're making me.

You're making me a second guess. Now you know how.

Starting the movement here Let's.

Go look, look, I mean, the the thing about sovereignty is what

I said, it's I think the two races I disagree with Sean on

the Belmont. I I think the two races are the

Preakness and the Brews Cup Classic.

I just do, I agree with Steve on this.

So that part, that part's really difficult for me to use.

Are you a no racing fan? Dark ride, do you love dirt

racing or not? We go to Breeder next.

I go first here on this one. This one was very easy for me as

I went to Godolphin for this one.

I think that one is a no brainer.

I did go to the Donald Alberto folks in second place here.

I went with Winstar in 3rd. The Donald Alberto folks I

thought were worth looking at because if you go to their total

starts, it's only 139. Man, they won four grade ones

this year, and I think that's absolutely worth mentioning.

Obviously, you know, Steve mentioned if you're going on the

stats, you go get Dolphin. That's what I'm doing here.

But I do think Donald Berto, frankly, based on their own

specific stats, really, really impressive.

Laid it on Winstar in the third spot.

I don't think I need to spend too much time on this particular

case here. Sean, where did you land?

I had the exact same chapter. OK, good.

We'll go to Steve for a long time.

We. Just move on to.

Steve, go to Steve. Let's do it.

Well, I, I used up, I, I used up all my energy going against

Godolphin in the last one. So suffice to say this is, this

is where I give into reality and I gave it to Godolphin.

I had Winstar second and again, I, I was kind of curious what

you guys had because I'm not, I'm not sure where I go with

third yet. Yeah, no, that's, that's you.

You heard from me there. I went with, I went with Don

Alberto just based on those grade one wins.

I think smaller operations deserve that kind of credit when

they do get to those spots. I remember a couple years ago,

I, I voted for Wayne Lister, who had the top 2 finishers.

God help me out. Was it Nest that ran in the

Belmont ran second? Yeah, and MO Donegal.

Yes, he bred both of those horses, and he has like 20 brood

mares on his on his farm. I was like, yeah, you get to be

#2 Of course. Yeah, well, that's awesome.

That's a great story. So that kind of stuff.

Did the same thing this year with the Don Alberto

Corporation. Up next after breeder is

Apprentice jockey. And I intentionally set up Steve

for the first one here because I know he has very strong feelings

about a very specific apprentice, Joc, and I wanted to

see if he's going to allow statistics to veer away from his

heart and his bankroll. Frankly, this guy's made him a

lot of money this year. Steve is only an apprentice job.

The answer is yes. I'm going to Maryland, to Yenzi

Hazelwood. If I'm saying it right, Yenzi,

Yenzi I still, I'm not entirely sure, but I know what his

accomplishments are. He is 17 years old and he's the

leading rider currently in Maryland.

He had an injury in the middle of the year.

He missed some time. He came back this fall and is

just absolutely dominating, absolutely cleaning up there,

won a couple stakes on that Maryland Million card and now

you already see is starting to branch out.

He was up at Naira for a weekend, you know, a couple

weeks ago. Just super, super talented.

And now, yes, when you elude the statistics, the statistics would

say to go with the Pedro Moran up at Woodbine.

So I, I, I think there's a, a sound reason though to bypass

those statistics a little bit. And that is that this is

actually Moran's third year as an apprentice rider up at

Woodbine. He's several years older than

Hazelwood. He's been at it for a few years

now. It's I, I don't, I'm not sure on

the exact rules that allow it, but you can be an apprentice

longer in Canada than you can in the United States.

So I just think the fact that this is a it Hazelwood is a 17

year old who just got here and is dominating the way he is on

that circuit and starting to ride well elsewhere.

I thought that's, you know, when, when you're looking at

this category, that's to me, that's a true apprentice success

story. And so I, I'm going to vote him

#1 and Moran #2. Who'd you land on #3 Do you have

someone? Yet Christopher Elliott.

I agree with you. We had the same three.

I totally agree. And and I, I encourage, if

anyone's a voter in watching this for whatever reason, man,

go back to those guys that lost the bug during the year too.

It's not their right. They rode well enough that they

don't they're not apprentices anymore.

And so like, don't, don't cut off a guy's season just because

he did so well or she did so well that you know that that

they've moved on from that. So I appreciate you saying

Chris's name because I totally agree with that.

If you just went on stats, it would be someone else.

I also, you know, shout out to a couple different guys and a guy

that Sean and I both know, Irving Molcata, I thought had a

really, really nice 2025, good end of 2024 as well.

So lots of good talent coming up.

Sean, where'd you end up landing in this one?

Well, I think Steve just persuaded me.

This is why. This is exactly why I didn't put

it in before we have the discussion because this is 1 of

this is one of the ones where, you know, I don't necessarily

always, hey, like this isn't a division that we're constantly

keeping track of throughout the whole year in terms of Eclipse

awards. Like we're not constantly topic

talking in July, like, oh, who's going to be the champion

apprentice this year? And so when I was looking at it,

you know, I was looking specifically at the 2025 stuff.

And as Steve mentioned, I didn't, I didn't necessarily

pick up on the fact that Moran had, which now I'm seeing 64

wins last year as well, kind of had the head start.

What I was looking at when I originally was going to pick

Moran was the race that the races that he won this year as

an apprentice, he won two graded sticks.

And on top of that, he won the Kings Plate, you know, the the

major race in Canada. So I was going to give him

credit for that. But now, now that Steve, Steve's

gotten in my mind here about him already having that experience

versus what Hazelwood has done this year, just which has been

remarkable and incredible. And he's probably one of the

most exciting young talents we have in the game right now.

So see, seeing him coming in with that lack of experience

now. And he's only one stakes win

behind Moran. It was 6 stakes for Moran this

year and five for Hazelwood. I think Moran won bigger races,

but I, I might be thinking Hazelwood now with, with Steve.

I'll let let you know later which one I end up end up

picking there. But I do have Christopher

Elliott in 3rd. Steve and I have the same top

three, so if that it matters to anyone, we landed on the same

folks. I will say this, I I talk to

people in Maryland, if not on a daily basis, multiple times a

week. The name Edgar Prado is the one

that I hear most often. He's the most talented since

with Yazidis. When that is not small, that's

not small praise at all. For sure.

This is our Eclipse Awards review and preview for what the

show will look like in January. Steve Kornacki from NBC Sports

joining Sean Collins and be Louis Ribo on Blood Horse Money.

Thanks for hanging out with us. Get in the comments, tell us

where we're right and tell us where we are wrong.

We would love to hear from you both on YouTube and on Spotify.

We move on to jockey that we have dropped the bug and we move

into the jockey of the year. Sean will go 1st and hear of

course, Flavi and Pratt winning his first one last year.

Mainstay Irad Ortiz junior talking about statistics near

the top of everything as well. His brother Jose having a

breakout year to follow up what was a really great 2024 for him

as well. Luis Saez, John Velasquez with a

ton of grade one wins, etcetera, etcetera.

A great, great year Sean. For the jockeys at the top of

the sport, where'd you land? Yeah, it was, it was a tough,

tough decision here for me, 'cause, you know, Irad leads by

wins, he leads by earnings. It's a small lead in earnings

comparison to Flavian. I don't know what their amounts

look like the next couple days to know if that's going to

change or not, which one will be on top of the other.

But the ultimately what I ended up picking off of was Flavian

winning thirteen grade ones with 13 different horses.

And so that yeah, so we know I like to see, you know, say, say

I'm just going to pick Junior Alvarado here because of

sovereignty. Say Sovereignty had gone on and

won, you know, say this was back in the 1970s and sovereignty won

ten grade one each year. And then you look at, you know,

Junior at the end of the year was on top with ten grade one

wins. It's like, well, it was all the

same horse, but seeing a jockey win that many grade ones on

different horses I think really is just a testament to different

skill sets as a jockey, the fact you're able to adjust now, to be

fair to I Rad, he won nine, nine grade ones with eight horses, so

he was doing the same thing. But I got to give the slight

edge to Flavian. They're close enough, I think,

in the earnings and Flavian having those extra couple grade

one wins I think is what did it for me.

And then I put John Velazquez in 3rd.

It just seemed like every every big race meeting, it just seemed

like Velasquez was riding well, was on top of top horses.

He won ten grade ones this year with seven different horses.

He had a great meet at Keeneland.

It just seemed like every seemed like every big race meet I'd

look up and there's John Velasquez winning something.

So that was that was more necessarily of me just thinking

of remembering all the races I've been to this year and who

did I see that I didn't necessarily expect to see.

Which it's weird to say that I wasn't expecting to see John

Velasquez because he's one of the greatest writers ever.

But for him to still be doing it all the all these years into his

career, still have as good of a opening weekend, a Keeneland

opening to the Keeneland season as he did.

I got to put him third. This was Sean for me.

I, by the way, we have the same three in a row, by the way.

This was not easy for me at the outset, but then when I dove

into it, this became easy. And it's very clear to me at the

high level of the sport, Flavia Pratt had a better year.

I want to give an honorable mention and it's just a moment

that I got to take in. I went to the 100th Wood

Memorial last spring and Kendrick Carmouche won his four

thousandth race. Now, Sean, this is probably the

thing I've mentioned most on this show.

That we Yeah, this is like a tenth time that our whistlers

are going to hear this story. But please.

Tell Steve the. Story.

Yeah, I'm going to tell Steve the story.

He wins his four thousandth race.

He's in the winner's circle with Maggie and he's holding the 4000

sign. And he says, Maggie, I got to

go. And she goes.

I know that's all he said and he took off and he jumped into the

crowd to celebrate with the Aqueduct faithful on that

Saturday who were screaming and yelling.

And I'm sure every, you know, every fifth race really like

him. But the other four races think

he's a bum, right? So it's nice for them to to join

him in that. So an honorable mention.

My favorite jockey moment of the year was that was was was was

Kendrick jumping into the Aqueduct crowd on a Saturday on

a misty wood Memorial Day in the spring?

Steve, where'd you land with Jock?

Yeah, and actually the exact same, to be honest as you guys.

I mean, I mean, I, I to me it's, it's was pretty clearly between

Pratt and Irad. And then I think, yeah, once you

once you went a layer deeper. And to me it was the greatest

stakes for for Pratt, you know, over Irad and and Johnny V in

his in his mid 50s to be doing that.

Yeah, I that's, you know, it's pretty straightforward.

I actually thought. Yeah, it's a a remarkable group

and we are living in a good era of jockeys for sure.

Steve, Sean and Louis hanging out with you.

We move on to trainer, and this I thought was one of the more

difficult ones to navigate, but I voted for the same guy that I

voted for last year, and that's Chad Brown.

And there's something about how Chad places his horses and his

willingness to lose stakes to win them as well that I really

like. I don't hold, Hey, he's got this

number of entries and a stakes against a trainer.

I don't think it's a fair thing to do.

I think it's their job to train horses to the highest level and

chase the biggest purses. And I think Chad does that as

well as anyone, frankly, in the sport.

My difficulty was coming up with a second and a third place here.

And it was for me. By the way, I'll, I'll be really

clear about this. I think you could make a case

for for Bill Mott if you wanted to give him credit for

sovereignty. I think you could make a case

for Todd Pletcher, who had another really great year.

But I ended up between Brad Cox, who's going to lead in earnings

and I'm and then Bob Baffert, who I think had an under the

radar really great year this year.

And not just in California. I think we saw his horses

shipped to other parts of the country and have good results as

well. But just 31 graded stakes for

Bob. I ended up putting him in the

second spot a couple ahead of Brad Cox and it's a little bit

unfair just because it is on its face easier to win a great at

stakes in California than it is in Kentucky.

And Bob is based largely in California and and Brad largely

in Kentucky. But Brad's also got all of the

resources that you could ever want.

He's a Rocky. So I'll go 123 that way.

I'll go Chad Brown, I'll go Bob Baffert, and then I will go with

Brad Cox 1-2 and three. As far as trainer Steve, you get

to go second. I think this is 1 where we could

see a real mixed vote frankly. Yeah, this, this one, I, I, I

struggled with, you know, a lot. I so I put Pletcher on top.

I ended up just saying, look, I, he had the, you know, my vote

for juvenile. He had my vote for older dirt

male. He had just an all around

typically, you know, Pletcher like, you know, elite year.

So I, I, I put him #1 you know, I end up going Cox #2 you know,

and, and again, I just think the, the earnings, I think he's

had better years. But I just think there was sort

of a breath there with Cox. And again, some of this was sort

of an absence of like, I think a true, true stand out, you know,

elsewhere. And 3rd, I'm going to find out

if this is legal or not, but I decided I, I thought the vote

should go to Dewayne Lucas for 3rd.

And, you know, he was a trainer. He was an active trainer for

half of the year and I think, you know, his passing this year

was a major, major event in the sport, shined a light on the

sport for a big, you know, chunk of the year.

And I, I, I just think, you know, again, I say these votes I

think are somewhat honorable mention and I sort of felt in

his last year at 89 doing it right to the end, the fact of

that is worth an honorable mention.

Steve's interview was right before Sean in my interview,

right after, right ahead of the Preakness, actually.

You got to spend some time with coach over Derby week, of

course. And I don't know why he wouldn't

be eligible. He trained this year in North

America and of course I think he's eligible.

Sean, where did you land 123 here.

I had a really tough time with this one as well.

I'm hearing all the points you guys are making.

I did for. I was considering Cox on top

here, Brad Cox because he he does have a pretty sizable lead

in the earnings standings. Now you might look at that and

say, well, that's because hit show won the Dubai World Cup.

But I mean, you still had to have a successful year in

addition to that for that to give you that big of a lead.

So I did really like really like how successful of a year that he

had. However, I felt like he didn't

he didn't necessarily really have any of those big major wins

the same way that a Chad Brown like he obviously won a lot of

big races and you know, the Kentucky Oaks, Patch Adams, all

the success he had this year. But you know, I did consider

Pletcher because of, you know, he's had, he had a phenomenal

year. He had Ted Nafi and you know,

some fierceness in mind frame balancing them throughout the

year. Chad Brown obviously is really

good. I also thought about Mark Cassie

just kind of same thing, like same thing like I thought with

John Velazquez. I just felt like every time I

looked up Mark Cassie had a good horse running in some of these

big races, won some of them, didn't win some of them, but I

felt like he always had a good one.

Kind of building off Steve's thinking I might do for 3rd

place as a kind of the honorable mention, Miguel Clemont

inheriting the stable after his father passed away in the middle

of the year and having success right off the bat the the

Goodyear that they ended up having throughout the summer up

there in New York. So I think he he's maybe one of

those honorable mention spots might look at him.

But I think I think I might end up going with Brad Cox here in

the top spot. I think that's kind of that's

where my mind initially went and you know, he's winning the

earnings by about by over 5 million and he's third by wins.

So I think I'm kind of going that way a little.

Bit yeah, Speaking of earnings, it's one of the reasons I had

Chad up there is because he's in the top 3IN earnings and nowhere

near the top 3IN starts. And so just an impressive top of

the top of the sport kind of showing as well.

Earnings per start very, very high for, for one, Chad Brown.

We move on to Horse of the Year. We'll get to steeplechase to

close the show. I know everybody's on baited

bread. Again, if you haven't commented

yet on this episode, get in the comments right now.

Tell us who your personal horse of the year is as we get into

these candidates. And of course, unfortunately for

Steve, he has to go first because he's the guest and

that's how these things work out for guests.

But Steve, this is an interesting year because the

winner of the Breeders Cup Classic, he raced one time in

North America, but his goal, stated goal for the entire year

was to win that race. And he did it.

And he did it in a blazing time against two other horses that

are absolutely spectacular. He beat the second best 3 year

old, frankly the best 3 year old in that field as well.

So he did everything he was supposed to do in that race.

But we have great performances from other horses, whether it's

on the male side, the female side.

Where'd you land, man? Who, who you going to go with

here? Is it the breeder?

Is it? Is it the Derby winner?

Yeah, well, I kind of tipped my hand a few minutes ago when I

said I kind of have a concrete rule against that.

You know, one time in North America, that one single race

situation. And I mean, you know, that's

that's what you got with Forever Young.

And I, I just, you know, ultimately, if that race in the

Middle East earlier in the year happened to be running the

United States, I think there's, to me, there's your, there's

your horse of the year, maybe. But no, I, I, I, I can't do it

on that. And I, I, you know, it has to be

to me sovereignty. I mean, you, just, you, you won

the, the Derby, the Belmont, the Travers dominated the

conversation. I, I, I've made my point about

the Preakness. I know other people share that.

I did toy with, you know, just the horse, you know, lose the,

the honor because of that. I think if it'd been a little

bit closer in my mind that that might have been the case.

But no, that's where I'm going to go.

I'm going to go with journalism, you know #2 you know, again,

just was equally, I think almost equally huge part of the

conversation that Preakness was incredibly memorable, what

journalism pulled off in that race, you know, and a lot of

other achievements there as well.

And then #3 I'm just, I'm going to put she feels pretty, who I

just very had a very, you know, a very impressive year.

Yeah, top. If she's your top filler mare.

I mean, I don't. I don't know why you wouldn't

put her in the top three. Sean, where'd you land in this

one? I know you landed on Sovereignty

One. Who else you got in your top

three? Yeah, I definitely got

sovereignty in the number one spot.

It was just as Steve said, he just dominated the conversation

the whole year. He is visibly impressive.

He beat, you know, the a really good 3 year old crop this year

and handled them fairly easily. He was the favorite going into

the Breeders Cup and unfortunately he had the

scratch. The way the race shaped up, I

feel like he would have won it. I feel like it would have went

toward his running style. So he, I mean, this year I felt

like really was absent of of a rival to him for horse of the

year. Like it was more like, let's see

if somebody beats him in the Breeders Cup.

And since nobody had the chance to do so, you can't really put

anybody on the same level with him.

And so I think he just is clearly, clearly the number one

pick for horse of the year for me.

I picked him in the mid season awards.

I was the only one of the three of us to do so.

And so I'm happy to still be on him at the end of the year.

I I had a tough. Time kind of figuring out who I

was going to put in the next couple of spots behind him.

I I mentioned Sierra Leone earlier as my pick for the

older, older champion male. You know, I consider him as part

of that. I also, I was considering

putting Ted Nafi in there even as a 2 year old because I hate

that. Nothing wrong.

He swept through. He wanted New York, he wanted

Kentucky, he wanted California. So I think I'm going to put him

in there as well as part of my top three for this.

So I, I think I'm probably looking at sovereignty in the

one obviously, but I might put Ted Nafi in the number 2 and

then Sierra Leone in the three might be how I'm looking at this

one. It's.

Interesting. I, you know, if you are willing

to put Sovereignty in this top spot like all three of us are, I

don't know why you wouldn't put Ted Anofi in the second spot if

you feel that strongly about it because all Sovereignty did was

beat other 3 year olds. Ted Anofi only beat other two

year olds. There's nothing to hold against

him. They ran in the races that they

did right. So top three for me, I went very

similar direction. Sovereignty first.

I'm going to give Forever Young the the nod for 2nd just because

he did win what I was the best race that I saw this year.

So I'm going to give him credit for that.

Then the third spot I went to journalism and it's for many of

the reasons that Steve outlined. But I think, I think if someone

told me they were voting, you know, you're the two of you made

a very good case and I hope people hear it that Eclipse

should get a look for the Eclipse Award, Eclipse Urban

Partners, Aaron Wellman, all those folks because of what they

did with journalism and how they handled it, how transparent it

was, how willing Michael McCarthy in that group was to to

talk with us about their decisions.

I mean, Sean, you talk to them 12 hours after he won, you know,

15 hours after he won the Preakness.

They could not have been nicer, more more direct about, hey,

we're gonna, we're gonna ship to New York and see what happens in

this and blah, blah, blah. They just, they did everything

the right way and journalism, I think really did save the

Preakness. Obviously his run of the

Preakness was incredible. Goes to the Belmont.

He shows up and wins the Haskell man and, and, and I just, it

just so, so cool and I, I love those kinds of things.

So 123 for me. Sovereignty for a young and

journalism I, I, if I were more of a sentimental person and I

think of myself as proof sentimental I, I would put

journalism #1 because I I think he did more for the sport this

year than than where you give him credit for it so.

That would be you. You got me.

You just got me to type him into my third spot right here.

So you, you convinced me. I, I didn't feel good about

Sierra Leone in the third spot. So you convinced me there that

you convinced me that I wasn't insane for thinking journalism

in that spot. We go to Sean for steeplechase.

Horse of the year. Go Cool Jet.

What an upset. All right, little cool jet song.

Only Grade 1 winner on the jumps this year to actually win other

races, other grade races. So that's gonna be default for

me. I wanna give a shout out to A

Bond. I have actually been following

that horse since he won, I think it was the William McKnight

Stakes when I went to Gulfstream for the Pegasus in 2022.

So he's a horse that I've enjoyed watching.

I'm glad he made the jump over to Stevo Chase successfully.

He won the Iroquois, which usually I just went for the

Iroquois winner every year. But the fact that he didn't race

at all after the Iroquois and then I saw that there was

another horse that had a grade one win and also a couple of

grade three wins. I had to go with Cool Jet.

But I did want to give a shout out to A Bond who did I put in

3rd here. I put the Grand National winner

in 3rd. I think Zana here, I put him in

3rd. Had he not, I think that was the

only start he had in the US. So I'm I'm breaking my rule

there. But I didn't really have

anything else to go with. That's one of the big races for

steeplechase, I think. So I got to, I got to go him

third. It's a six year old gelded son

of Broken Vow who didn't win a race until this year that swore

go with swore this year. Why not one?

At Aqueduct. Get the top spot for me in the

steeplechase rankings. I then went to a bond.

I totally agree with everything you said.

I went to proven innocent third, why not?

And that that horse ran up there in two grade ones, both at

Saratoga, one in the first one and came second in the Smith.

And so there you go. There's my 123.

Steve, where'd you land In the steeplechase?

I've had a proven innocent #2A bond #3 OK.

So we were two M2 terribly. Out.

Well, they got, well, we're, oh, we got like 2 1/2 minutes till

we hit 90 minutes on this episode, which is insane, of

course, but worth it for sure. I want to bring in our editor on

this thing. His name is Frank Angst.

Frank has been listening to us throughout and I want to make

sure we get his thoughts at least on a couple of things.

But Horse of the Year Frank, by the time you do submit your

ballot, who do you think it'll be?

Well, I, I mean, if I was picking who I think is going to

win, who the voters will go with, I think it's going to be

sovereignty. But I am voting enthusiastically

for Forever Young. I've thought all year that the

best division was the older horse division.

I feel like a vote for sovereignty.

And I never want to sound like I'm knocking the horse because

you have to choose one or the other.

And that comes up in football and every other sport.

It's like to justify your vote, you run down the other person or

horse. But I'm not going to do that

with sovereignty. You had a heck of a year, but my

thought all year is that the older horse division was really

good. And in sovereignty you have a

horse that never faced any of those horses and and forever

young. You have a horse that came over

and won the Breeders Cup Classic.

The race is kind of designed to determine horse of the year for

our country. Beyond that, he won the other

two big well, he won and finished third in the other two

biggest international dirt races in the world.

And all along the goal was the Breeders Cup.

I know we don't really consider last year, but he's raced in the

country before. You know, I, I never put a rule

in like I won't vote for a horse or person for whatever reason.

Now, like I do agree it has to be extraordinary circumstances

if you've only win one race in the country.

But the fact that I just really thought the older horses were

really good this year and it got backed up.

I mean, journalism was up the track against fierceness in the

Pacific Classic by ASA was not really competitive in the

Breeders Cup Classic. The older horses were better.

I think the horse of the year is kind of evolved into whoever

dominates their division the most.

I've never looked at it that way.

I think it's a shame it's gone that way.

I try. I I think Forever Young was the

best horse race in the country this year.

There's my vote. There you go.

Any, any, any crazy stuff? You know, we should probably ask

you, you're a trainer since we kind of went a lot of different

places. How do you how did you weigh out

trainers this year? I I'm still looking at trainer.

I haven't turned my. Votes in this year.

Horse of the year, though, I I had a strong opinion on

throughout just just because the older horses were so good.

You know, the the the an interesting trend.

I it's a shame that we can't honor fierceness in Sierra

Leone. They were two they may have been

the two best horses the regularly race in the country

this year. And I don't know that the I

mean, one of them might get older horse, you know, vote for

forever young there. So that's kind of a shame that

only one of them will win at the most, but that that's the way it

falls the the three-year old division.

I I thought that was exciting this year and it it was really

cool to put sovereignty fierceness by Hazel like right,

right in the order that they were all year in the races that

matter. Louis, I think you're off your

rocker a little bit and that's but anybody but those three in

there. But as as you guys explained,

it's really only the first place vote that is that's used to

consider who the winner is. It's funny, a lot of the

arguments each year occurs over divisions where I kind of say,

well, I don't know that there was a champion.

Unfortunately, the more interesting the debates are the

ones where there were a bunch of good horses, and we did have a

bunch of good horses this year, but they're kind of all in their

own divisions. You mentioned other sports, but

Frank, but it's it's like that, right?

We debate the 12th of the 13th team in the College Football

Playoff. We don't debate who's number

one, right. You know, that's that's

essentially what you're getting at is that a lot of these.

Divisions are getting a chance to put the kibosh on this, but

it comes up every year. Oh, we need to explain.

Expand the NCAA tournament because the 6015 got left out.

We need to expand college bat football from 12 to 16 because

#13's upset as if #17 won't be upset.

They'll just be good with it. Yeah, we were 17, but now that

we've gone to 16, that's where it should stay forever.

Yeah, that's that's always an interesting dynamic that comes

up in debate. But it's good for sports talk

shows. So I won't take that from you,

Louis. Yeah, don't take that from you.

I need to talk about something 10 hours a week.

That's exactly right. Well, thank you, Frank, for

jumping on. I appreciate you forever young

president of the fan club right there will get that man a

plushie. Get it done, get it done.

Thank you Frank appreciate you man and Steve, I appreciate you

jumping on as well. Hope hope you've had a good

Christmas, good New Year's. Are you a are you hanging out

with Ryan Seacrest? Like what level are we at here

for your New York? No, I, last year, I, I, OK, this

is the only group of people that would appreciate this at all.

So, so last year I've told this to five people in my normal life

and they all like, look at me like I'm insane.

I was so excited that last year on New Year's Eve, I hit the

final pick five at any track in North America for the year 2024.

I hit the Turf Paradise pick 5, like 830 on New Year's Eve.

And I was telling everybody and nobody cared.

So maybe I'll try to do that again.

Well, Sean's Sean's in Saratoga, so just have New Year's Eve with

Sean. You guys can bet.

There you go. I'll actually I'll be in

Pennsylvania for New Year's Eve. I'll be I'll be hanging out at

parks probably. He's taking a one last race

today so. Oh, you're a sicko, Sean, and

that's why you love you. We love you.

But he's Steve Kornacki. He's he's borderline sicko as

well. We appreciate him joining on

from NBC Sports. Steve, happy new year, buddy.

We really appreciate you and don't be a stranger on the

program. Happy New Year guys.

Thanks a lot. Steve Kornacki, NBC Sports

appreciate him jumping on. And of course, if you are, if

you are watching this, if you are hanging out with us this

long, you definitely need to go and check out the magazine at

bloodhorse.com. Click on the magazine tab at the

top of the homepage or hit that QR code at the bottom of your

YouTube or Spotify screen. Sean's holding up this month's

edition, and if you want no total.

It's not this month's edition. I just happened to pick up the

one for sovereignty because we I knew we were sovereignty about

Him. So there you go.

All right? Yep.

But here's a firm example. Man, oh man, which race is that?

I'm at my mom's place. No, that's the true.

I'm at my mom's place. So she has a subscription.

So I have the magazine right here.

There you go, magazine's right there and almost certainly near

it is that stallion registry as well.

But QR code on the screen right now, YouTube and on Spotify,

make sure you get in that way. And of course, you can check us

out. Get the daily at bloodhorse.com.

Check out the daily tab e-mail to your inbox everyday.

Cost you nothing. Would love to have you as part

of our blood horse family that way.

But he's Sean, he's Frank. He's Steve.

My name is Louis. Thanks for joining us all year

long on Blood Horse Monday. We will be back next year.

Plenty of new things planned as well.

We will share those with you as we move throughout the year.

But thank you so much for your continued support through the

year. We will see you in 2026.

Happy New Year from all of us at Blood Horse Monday.

Is Sean still my Co host? Find out next month.

The Blood Horse is dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred

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