Although the COVID-19 pandemic turned 2020 into a chaotic year, it was rewarding for many horses that raced at Oaklawn Park.
The Eclipse Award nominations, announced Saturday, include one Oaklawn-raced performer for Horse of the Year, the reigning Breeders' Cup Sprint champion and all three finalists in the 3-year-old filly division.
All three nominated trainers raced locally, even if Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen was dethroned as Oaklawn's training champion. Fellow Hall of Famer Bob Baffert had a strong one-two punch with HOY finalists Audible and Improbable while Brad Cox sent out four Breeders' Cup winners, including HOY finalist Monomoy Girl.
Authentic, steady all season, won the year's two biggest races, the Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic.
Winners in 17 horse and human categories will be announced on TVG and other outlets during a virtual ceremony of the 50th Eclipse Awards on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. CT. Voters represent the National Thoroughbred Association, Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.
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.
Oaklawn, which on Friday opens a 57-day season, has a keen interest in the contest for male sprinter. Whitmore, winning two Oaklawn stakes, at age 7 scored his first Breeders' Cup Sprint victory Nov. 7 at Keeneland. Arkansas native Ron Moquett trains and co-owns the Pleasantly Perfect gelding, winner of a record four consecutive Hot Springs Stakes and three in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.
Volatile, a 4-year-old trained by Asmussen, won an Oaklawn allowance in April and later defeated Whitmore in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt at Saratoga. Injuries kept Volatile and finalist Vekoma, the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile winner, from contesting the BC Sprint.
Improbable, a 4-year-old trained by Baffert, finished second in the Oaklawn Mile but later won three straight Grade 1 races for older horses. Sired by the late City Zip, Improbable placed second to Authentic in the Breeders' Cup Classic Nov. 7 at Keeneland. He was second in the Grade 2 Rebel and Grade 1 Arkansas Derby in 2019.
Monomoy Girl, after not racing as a 4-year-old, enjoyed a perfect 2020 season for Cox, winning the Breeders' Cup Distaff for the second time in three years. The two other dirt-female finalists boast Oaklawn victories, Midnight Bisou winning twice in 2019 and Serengeti Empress taking the Grade 2 Azeri Stakes in March.
Although Oaklawn's two major races for 3-year-old fillies remain only Grade 3, all three division finalists won at Oaklawn and scored Grade 1 victories off the track. Swiss Skydiver, trained by Ken McPeek, won the Fantasy Stakes in May and became the second Oaklawn-raced winner of the Preakness (joining Rachel Alexandra, 2009) in October.
Shedaresthedevil avenged her third-place Fantasy finish with an upset in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks Sept. 4, also winning Oaklawn's Honeybee Stakes in March. Shedaresthedevil, trained by Cox, is the first Grade 1 winner and Eclipse Award nominee raced by Staton Flurry, of Hot Springs, who bought the filly late in her 2-year-old season.
Gamine, the other 3-year-old filly nominee, won two Grade 1 stakes in New York last summer. She captured an allowance race on the May 2 Arkansas Derby undercard at Oaklawn but was disqualified for failing a drug test.
Baffert's three May 2 Oaklawn winners included 3-year-old finalist Nadal in the first division of the Arkansas Derby. Also winning the Rebel in March. Nadal was retired after the Arkansas Derby. Authentic and Tiz the Law, the Belmont Stakes winner for trainer Barclay Tagg, are the other 3-year-old male finalists.
Gamine and Serengeti Empress also are up for female sprinter. Male-turf horse nominees include Grade 1 winner Zulu Alpha, owned by Michael Hui, of Little Rock, and trained by Mike Maker.
Nominated for best jockey are Irad Ortiz Jr., who rode Whitmore in the Breeders' Cup; John Velazquez, aboard Authentic in his Kentucky Derby and BC Classic; and Joel Rosario.