us racing Arrogate settled in second and on the rail going into the first bend. The son of Unbridled’s Song won by an unchallenged four and three-quarter lengths
Beholder won her fourth Eclipse in five years when taking home the majority of votes in the older dirt female category with 246 compared to Stellar Wind’s two received and the five for Songbird. Not surprisingly, California Chrome was voted the unanimous winner of the Older Dirt Male award after winning seven of his eight races in 2016, including three Grade 1s. In something not seen often at the Eclipse Awards, voters seemed to be on the same page for multiple awards with Classic Empire unanimously voted the two-year-old male, and Songbird the three-year-old filly winner following up her championship from last year. Classic Empire’s Eclipse award was a big boon for his sire Pioneerof the Nile, whose four crops of racing age have yielded two champions. Even better for the WinStar Farm stallion is that those two champions have won Eclipse Awards in three of the four years he’s had horses on the track, quickly building him a legacy as a championship sire. Ending her year – and career – by outdueling Songbird in a race for the ages in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1), Beholder won her fourth Eclipse in five
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years when taking home the majority of votes in the older dirt female category with 246 compared to Stellar Wind’s two. Beholder made history throughout her career, but perhaps one of the most important historic events was becoming the first North American-based horse in history to win a Grade 1 race every year from the age of two through to six. Beholder retired to her owner’s Spendthrift Farm after the Breeders’ Cup where she is booked to visit Uncle Mo this year. The US three-year-old male division was a mess of confusion after three different colts won Triple Crown races before tailing off later in the year. Matters, though, were all cleared up when Arrogate hit the scene in August. Breaking Saratoga’s track record in a 13l romp in the (G1) Travers Stakes, Arrogate followed that up with his Breeders’ Cup Classic victory. It was more than enough to convince 243 voters that he deserved to be the champion three-year-old, Bob Baffert’s second consecutive trainee to win the award.
Arrogate is the third three-year-old not to win a Triple Crown race, but win the threeyear-old championship since Skip Away won the award in 1996. When breeders think of sire Gio Ponti, the first thing that comes to mind is “Turf stallion”, but thanks to Drefong that label may be fading. Drefong was another lightly raced Baffert trainee who went on to bigger and better things the second half of the year when winning the King’s Bishop (G1) on the Travers undercard and giving Baffert another Breeders’ Cup winner when crossing the line first in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1). One of three finalists for the male sprinter award, Drefong had to go against another Baffert trainee, Spendthrift Farm’s Lord Nelson. It was another easy choice for voters as Drefong earned 199 first place votes against Lord Nelson’s 29, with A.P. Indian the third finalist with 20 first place votes. The female sprinter award was not nearly so clear cut. In a competitive division that saw fillies and mares swapping wins throughout the year, eight mares earned at least one first place vote. The Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Finest City (City Zip) made the biggest impression on voters, getting 185 first place votes to take home the award. Continuing her good few months, only hours before being named champion, Finest