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

2014 Eclipse Award Winners

Date: 01/17/2015

The 44th annual Eclipse Awards were held Saturday night at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, honoring the champions of North American racing in 2014. Of the 280 eligible voters representing the NTRA, the National Turf Writers And Broadcasters, and Daily Racing Form, 265 (94.6%) 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
California Chrome winning the Preakness Stakes
California Chrome was named Horse of the Year as well as the Champion 3-Year-Old Male. The sentimental choice won the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Hollywood Derby on turf (all Grade 1), and was a close third in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) behind Bayern, who was a finalist in the same two categories. As the only horse to win Grade 1 events on both dirt and turf, he is the first California-bred to be voted Horse of the Year since Tiznow in 2000. Co-owner Steve Coburn said, "It's an honor to be nominated and to win these two prestigious awards. I've got to thank all the fans that love this horse. Because if it wasn't for the fans we would not have horse racing and if it wasn't for horse racing we would not have fans." Trainer Art Sherman added, "I'm so excited. I wish my jock was here, (Victor) Espinoza. He's a great rider and he did everything right with this horse."

Untapable was the only unanimous choice in this year's voting, taking the 3-year-old filly championship off her wins in the Kentucky Oaks, Mother Goose, and Breeders' Cup Distaff (all Grade 1). Only four voters did not pick Dayatthespa as champion turf female, off her wins in the First Lady and the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Similarly, four voters also did not choose Judy the Beauty as the champion female sprinter, winner of the Madison (G1) at Keeneland, the Rancho Bernardo Handicap (G3) at Del Mar, and the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita. The closest vote was for 2-year-old male, with American Pharoah, who missed the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) due to injury, getting 126 votes over the 111 earned by Texas Red, who won the Juvenile at Santa Anita.

There only repeat winners this year were in the human categories with Trainer Todd Pletcher, Jockey Javier Castellano, and Owners and Breeders Ken and Sarah Ramsey winning again. There were two dual winners with Main Sequence taking home Older Male and Turf Male and Ken and Sarah Ramsey winning again for Owner and Breeder this year.

All the winners for 2014 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.

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Horse of the Year: California Chrome

Voting: California Chrome 143, Main Sequence 53, Bayern 36, Shared Belief 12, Untapable 11, Wise Dan 6, Adelaide (IRE) 1, Take Charge Brandi 1, Voter abstentions 2

Champion Three-Year-Old Male: California Chrome

Voting: California Chrome 193, Bayern 56, Shared Belief 15, Voter abstentions 1

Two-Year-Old Male: American Pharoah

Voting: American Pharoah, 126; Texas Red, 111; Hootenanny, 16; Carpe Diem, 7; Dortmund, 3; Ocho Ocho Ocho, 2.

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Two-Year-Old Filly: Take Charge Brandi

Voting: Take Charge Brandi, 236; Lady Eli, 23; Condo Commando, 3; Sunset Glow, 3

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Champion Three-Year-Old Filly: Untapable

Voting: Untapable 265

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Older Male: Main Sequence

Voting: Main Sequence 127, Palace Malice 103, Wise Dan 25 Goldencents 9, Game on Dude 1

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Older Female: Close Hatches

Voting: Close Hatches 155, Dayatthespa 64, Don't Tell Sophia 19, Judy the Beauty 15, Iotapa 7, Beholder 5

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Male Sprinter: Work All Week

Voting: Work All Week 184, Goldencents 52, Palace 12, Private Zone 11, Bobby's Kitten 2, Bayern 1, Big Macher 1, Secret Circle 1, Shared Belief 1

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Female Sprinter: Judy the Beauty

Voting: Voting: Judy the Beauty 261, Midnight Lucky 1, Living the Life (IRE) 1, La Verdad 1, Awesome Baby 1

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Male Turf Horse: Main Sequence

Voting: Main Sequence 243, Wise Dan 18, California Chrome 2, Karakontie (JPN) 1, Adelaide (AUS) 1

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Female Turf Horse: Dayatthespa

Voting: Dayatthespa 260, Crown Queen 2, Coffee Clique 1, Room Service 1, voter abstentions 1

Steeplechase: Demonstrative

Voting: Demonstrative 206, Divine Fortune 12, Decoy Daddy (IRE) 5, Makari 2, Voter abstentions 40

horse racing
Owner: Ken and Sarah Ramsey

Voting: Ken and Sarah Ramsey 179, Midwest Throughbreds 21, Kaleem Shah Inc. 20, Others: Flaxman Holdings Ltd 18, Steven Coburn and Perry Martin 6, Maggie Moss 2, John Oxley 1, Robert Evans 1, voter abstentions 5

horse racing
Breeder: Ken and Sarah Ramsey

Voting: Ken and Sarah Ramsey 129, Adena Springs 43, Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC 43, Others: Flaxman Holdings Ltd. 29, Steven Coburn and Perry Martin 6, Helen Alexander 3, Winstar Farm 3, Darley 1, Midwest Thoroughbreds Inc. 1, voter abstentions 7

horse racing
Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Voting: Todd Pletcher 100, Chad Brown 64, Art Sherman 45, Bob Baffert 20, Graham Motion 13, Jerry Hollendorfer 11, Steve Asmussen 6, D. Wayne Lukas 3, Karl Broberg 1, Edward Graham 1, Mike Maker 1

horse racing
Jockey: Javier Castellano

Voting: Javier Castellano 203, John Velazquez 34, Mike Smith 8, Joel Rosario 8, Rosie Napravnik 5, Victor Espinoza 4, Irad Ortiz Jr, 2, Alexis Batista 1

Apprentice Jockey: Drayden Van Dyke

Voting: Drayden Van Dyke 225, Juan Saez 11, Trevor McCarthy 6, Taylor Rice 6, Voter abstentions 17

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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