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Eclipse with Mr.Wildman & His Sons
by George Stubbs
Buy this print at Art.com

2013 Eclipse Award Winners

Date: 01/18/2014

The 43rd annual Eclipse Awards were held Saturday night at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, honoring the champions of North American racing in 2013. Of the 272 eligible voters representing the NTRA, the NTWAB and Daily Racing Form, 249 (91.5%) took part in this year’s voting. Finalists were determined in each category by voters’ top three selections, using a 10-5-1 point basis. Eclipse Award winners are determined solely by first place votes.

horse racing
Wise Dan winning the Woodbine Mile
Wise Dan was once again named Horse of the Year as well as the Champion Older Male and Champion Male Turf Horse. Last year he became the first horse since John Henry in 1981 to win three awards (coincidentally, the same three) in the same year and repeating the feat makes it even more impressive. Raced by Morton Fink for trainer Charlie Lopresti, under jockey John Velazquez, the gelding won 6 of 7 starts and second once at 6 different tracks, including the Breeders' Cup Mile and Woodford Reserve Turf Classic plus the Woodbine Mile in course record time. His only defeat was a close second in the Shadwell Turf Mile over the PolyTrack after the race was taken off the turf.

Owner-breeder Morton Fink said, "Wise Dan has certainly accomplished a whole lot. He owns three track records. One of them is at a mile and 1/8, which might surprise some people who don't think he can't run past a mile. I'm hoping I can convince Charlie (LoPresti, trainer), that if the horse stays like he is, if we can run him on the dirt, long. I think the breeding of a $29,000 mare with an at-the-time $1000 stud fee, should get people interested in the business. You don't have to be a millionaire, you can get lucky at any price, with what you can afford. Anything can happen."

There were several other repeat winners this year including Beholder who got Champion 3-year-old filly (she won for 2-year-old filly last year), Royal Delta who repeated as Champion Older Female, and Groupie Doll who won Champion Female Sprinter again. Another dual winner was Ken and Sarah Ramsey who took home top honors for but Owner and Breeder this year.

All the winners for 2013 are listed below with the actual vote totals. A link to a full profile is given for each horse and past performances for all the finalists are available here from Daily Racing Form. To see all this years finalists, check here. You can look up past year's winners here. You can see how the awards are decided here.

horse racing
Horse of the Year: Wise Dan

Voting: Wise Dan, 208, Mucho Macho Man, 21, Will Take Charge, 15; Others: Dank (GB), 1; Princess of Sylmar, 1; Royal Delta, 1, abstentions, 2.

Older Male: Wise Dan

Voting: Wise Dan 123, Mucho Macho Man 93, Game on Dude 31, Others: Flat Out 2

Male Turf Horse: Wise Dan

Voting: Wise Dan 243, Magician 4, Point of Entry 1, Others: Obviously 1

Two-Year-Old Male: Shared Belief

Voting: Shared Belief 115, New Year's Day 99, Havana 24, Others: Honor Code 5, Outstrip 4, Tamarando 1, No vote 1

horse racing
Two-Year-Old Filly: She's a Tiger

Voting: She's a Tiger 212, Chriselliam 15, Ria Antonia 10, Others: Sweet Reason 3, Stopshoppingmaria 3, Streaming 3, My Conquestadory 2, Artemis Agrotera 1

horse racing
Champion Three-Year-Old Male: Will Take Charge

Voting: Will Take Charge 231, Orb 15, Palace Malice 1, Others: Goldencents 1, Verrazano 1

horse racing
Champion Three-Year-Old Filly: Beholder

Voting: Beholder 207, Princess of Sylmar 42, Close Hatches 0

horse racing
Older Female: Royal Delta

Voting: Royal Delta 234, Joyful Victory 3, Tiz Miz Sue 2, Others: Dank 5, Dance to Bristol 1, Laughing 1, Brandy's Secret 1, abstention 1, no vote 1

Male Sprinter: Points Offthebench

Voting: Points Offthebench 125, Secret Circle 70, Sahara Sky 45, Others: Justin Phillip 4, Private Zone 2, Immortal Eyes 1, Strapping Groom 1, abstention 1

horse racing
Female Sprinter: Groupie Doll

Voting: Groupie Doll 192, Mizdirection 45, Dance to Bristol 5, Others: Cluster of Stars, 7

horse racing
Female Turf Horse: Dank

Voting: Dank 229, Laughing 8, Mizdirection 8

Steeplechase: Divine Fortune

Voting: Divine Fortune 112, Italian Wedding 27, Gustavian 25, Others: Alajmal 21, Mr. Hot Stuff 12, Abstentions 52

horse racing
Owner: Ken and Sarah Ramsey

Voting: Ken and Sarah Ramsey 235, Midwest Throughbreds 4, Juddmonte 0, Others: Morton Fink 3, Gary and Mary West 2, Jungle Racing 1, Maggi Moss 1, abstentions 3

horse racing
Breeder: Ken and Sarah Ramsey

Voting: Ken and Sarah Ramsey 221, Adena Springs 17, Morton Fink 4, Others: Darley 1, WinStar Farm 1, abstentions 1

horse racing
Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Voting: Todd Pletcher 183, Bill Mott 7, Bob Baffert 5, Others: D. Wayne Lukas 21, Jerry Hollendorfer 9, Charles LoPresto 6, Shug McGaughey 6, Steve Asmussen 3, Chad Brown 2, Kathy Ritvo 2, Ollie Figgins 1, David Jacobson 1, King Leatherbury 1, Dale Romans 1, abstention 1

horse racing
Jockey: Javier Castellano

Voting: Javier Castellano 134, Gary Stevens 65, Joel Rosario 21, Others: Mike Smith 19, John Velazquez 8, Corey Nakatani 1, abstention 1

Apprentice Jockey: Victor Carrasco

Voting: Victor Carrasco 172, Edgard Zayas 18, Manuel Franco 13, Others: Emmanuel Esquivel 8, Jose Ortiz 4, Dylan Davis 3, Trevor McCarthy 2, Voter abstentions 29

How the Awards are Decided

The old three-bloc voting system was replaced in 2003 with a one vote per person system, where every voter's selection is weighted equally. Voters rank their top three selections in each of the 16 voting categories and points are awarded on a 10-5-1 basis. The voting point system determines the three finalists in each category, but the winner is determined by first-place votes only. To see all the details of the new voting format from DRF, check here.

More about the Eclipse Awards:

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