3-year-old Eclipse race still wide open

ELMONT, N.Y. – Nearly six months in, the race for the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male is about as wide open as it was on New Year’s Day, setting the stage for a compelling second half of the season, with races like the Travers and Pennsylvania Derby looming large.

For the third time in the last four years, all three Triple Crown races were won by a different horse. In both 2016 and 2017, the Travers proved pivotal, as the winner both those years went on to claim the title.

War of Will could have solidified the top ranking Saturday had he added the Belmont to his victory in the Preakness. Instead, stablemate Sir Winston prevailed as War of Will struggled home ninth. That, combined with a Kentucky Derby in which Country House was declared the winner via disqualification over Maximum Security, has left the division without an obvious leader.

“It was an odd Triple Crown, for many reasons,” trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday morning at Belmont Park. “It will be interesting to see if someone can take command of the division.”

Pletcher has seen this movie before. In 2017, he sent out Always Dreaming to a victory in the Derby, and he won the Belmont with Tapwrit; Cloud Computing, trained by Chad Brown, won that year’s Preakness. Yet it was West Coast, trained by Bob Baffert, who came to the fore that summer and fall. He parlayed victories in the Travers and Pennsylvania Derby, and a third-place finish against elders in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, to the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male.

Another late-developing 3-year-old took advantage of the Triple Crown chaos in 2016 to wrest the title from the winners of the classics. Nyquist had won the Derby, Exaggerator the Preakness, and Creator the Belmont, but Arrogate – who didn’t make his career debut until April 17 – beat Creator and Exaggerator in the Travers and then ran down California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic to be named the division’s champion.

“It’s wide open at the moment,” Bill Mott, the trainer of Country House and Belmont runner-up Tacitus, said Sunday. “It’s going to be determined much later, or maybe there will be an Arrogate who steps up, though I don’t see one at the moment.”

Country House, Maximum Security, Sir Winston, and War of Will all have the Travers, to be run this year on Aug. 24 at Saratoga, as their main goal this summer. But there are several others – most notably Omaha Beach, winner of the Arkansas Derby and a division of the Rebel who was the morning-line favorite for the Derby – who could vie for the title if they come back with a strong second half of the year. Omaha Beach has been in Kentucky since his surgery for an entrapped epiglottis but was en route to California on Monday.

Maximum Security is the only horse of this crop to have crossed the wire first in a pair of Grade 1 races. Prior to being DQ’d in the Derby, he was a front-running winner of the Florida Derby. He was scheduled to make his first start since the Derby this Sunday at Monmouth in the Pegasus – using that as a prep to next month’s Haskell – but that is in jeopardy at the moment pending results of blood work, trainer Jason Servis reported over the weekend.

Like Maximum Security, Country House has not raced since the Derby. He took ill following the race and only recently has returned to training at Churchill Downs. He will head soon to Saratoga, where Mott is based in the summer, and will be joined there by Tacitus, whom Mott wanted to give a few days’ rest at Belmont before sending him up the Thruway.

War of Will has a strong résumé this year, with a pair of graded stakes wins at Fair Grounds prior to the Preakness. He will re-join Casse’s string at Keeneland for some post-Belmont freshening.

Sir Winston has improved sharply since moving to Belmont Park, where he was second in the Peter Pan prior to the Belmont, his only stakes win this year.

Tacitus was moved to third in the Derby following the DQ of Maximum Security, so he boasts being the only horse to finish in the money in two Triple Crown races this year. He also won the Tampa Bay Derby and Wood Memorial, so he is right in the mix heading into the second half of the year.

Code of Honor also is in with a chance. He won the Fountain of Youth and was officially second in the Derby.

Last year’s champion 2-yearold male, Game Winner – freshened since his wide trip in the Derby – also is pointing to the Travers. He will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Arrogate and West Coast.

The battle to claim the throne continues. Summer is coming.

DEBRA A. ROMA War of Will is still in the Eclipse hunt with two Fair Grounds stakes wins, plus the Preakness.