Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
TOP OF THE HEAP
BRICKS AND MORTAR EMERGES AS HORSE OF THE YEAR FAVORITE,
ARCADIA, Calif. – For the last five years, and for most of the nearly 50 years that the Eclipse Awards have existed, the Horse of the Year has been either the outstanding 3-yearold from the Triple Crown races, or the best older distance horse on dirt.
But the results of this year’s races in those divisions were chaotic, and instead over the past 11 months two horses – one a turf specialist, one largely a sprinter – have emerged as the two best horses in the country. Their victories in Breeders’ Cup races last Saturday at Santa Anita stamp them as the best candidates to take home the golden trophy as Horse of the Year for 2019.
Bricks and Mortar completed a perfect season with his victory in the Turf, which gave him a perfect record of six wins in six starts this year, with five of those victories in Grade 1 races. He won at six different tracks, at distances ranging from 1 1/8 miles to 1 1/2 miles on Saturday, the first time he’d ever run that far.
Mitole won the Sprint against a top-class field to finish off a year in which he won six times in seven starts, with four Grade 1 wins. He won at five different tracks, at distances ranging from six furlongs to one mile. His only loss, in the Vanderbilt, came over a Saratoga track that was widely acknowledged as having a dead rail, and that’s where he was drawn that day.
Bricks and Mortar for weeks has led the poll put out by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which compiles the votes of more than three dozen media members, and the final poll released Monday had Bricks and Mortar receiving 42 first place votes to just two for Mitole, a shockingly lopsided margin. Far more voters will submit ballots in early January, with the Eclipse Award electorate made up of members of Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, and a bloc from the NTRA, whose voters include racing secretaries and field personnel with Equibase.
Both would be deserving winners. But while Bricks and Mortar is the acknowledged favorite, a deeper dive into their campaigns might find this choice should be closer than it first appears. An argument could be made that the level of competition Mitole ran against was superior to what Bricks and Mortar beat.
Mitole beat a top-class field on Saturday in the Sprint, and most notably won a Met Mile whose next across the line were McKinzie, one of the best older runners in the nation, and Thunder Snow, who was coming off his second straight win in the Dubai World Cup.
Bricks and Mortar for much of the year faced a group of older North American-based turf horses who were not considered world-class talents. Runnersup in his Grade 1 wins included Qurbaan, Robert Bruce, and United. The depth of the Turf, compared to the Mile, was among the reasons he ended up in the Turf Saturday.
Bricks and Mortar also never lost a race, won more Grade 1s than Mitole, and ran longer distances, an aspect voters usually prefer.
Both Bricks and Mortar and Mitole are cinches to win divisional Eclipse Awards, many of which were decided last Friday and Saturday at Santa Anita.
Bricks and Mortar is a slamdunk as champion male turf horse, and Mitole will be the male sprint champ. Mitole also figures to get plenty of support in the older dirt male division, whose top candidates include Vino Rosso – winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Gold Cup at Santa Anita, and who was first across the wire in the Jockey Club Gold Cup – and Whitney winner McKinzie, who split his two head-to-head meetings with Vino Rosso.
Midnight Bisou was in play for Horse of the Year prior to the Distaff. Her loss in that race likely removes her from serious consideration, but she was so dominant within her division throughout the year that she’s a heavy favorite to be named champion older dirt female over Distaff winner Blue Prize.
Covfefe won the Filly and Mare Sprint and seems certain to win the Eclipse Award in that division, and British Idiom
completed a perfect season with her victory in the Juvenile Fillies against all the top candidates in that category, making her an obvious choice, too.
Three other divisions, however, offer more difficult choices.
Covfefe likely will get strong consideration for champion 3-year-old filly, a division whose other top candidates include Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress, and Guarana, who, like Covfefe, won a pair of Grade 1 races this year. There also might be a smattering of support for Iridessa, the Irish import who beat elders in her lone North American start in the Filly and Mare Turf.
Code of Honor might have wrapped up the 3-year-old male title had he won the Classic. But his loss, while still leaving him a top candidate owing to wins in the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup, affords Maximum Security a terrific chance to wrest the title if he can add the Cigar Mile or Clark to earlier victories in the Haskell and Florida Derby, not to mention being disqualified in a controversial decision in the Kentucky Derby.
Uni beat Got Stormy and a dozen males in the Mile on Saturday, evening their headto-head meetings at one each, but Uni owns two Grade 1 victories this year to Got Stormy’s one. Uni’s Chad Brown-trained stablemate Sistercharlie is the defending champ in the female turf division, and she has three Grade 1 wins this year, but she lost the Filly and Mare Turf on Saturday against a field that appeared inferior to the company Uni beat.
The most-chaotic category is 2-year-old male, whose championship dirt race, the Juvenile, was won by 45-1 shot Storm the Court against Dennis’ Moment and Eight Rings, both of whom were considered divisional leaders until Friday. Structor should get support for an unbeaten season that culminated with a victory in the Juvenile Turf. But since no one has stood out all year in this division, a late-season bid could carry plenty of weight, and the most likely candidate to pounce is Tiz the Law. He is unbeaten, won the Grade 1 Champagne, and is scheduled to start later this month in the Kentucky Jockey Club.
As for the human awards, Irad Ortiz Jr. – the reigning Eclipse Award winner as champion jockey – led all riders at the Breeders’ Cup with four victories, including with Bricks and Mortar and Vino Rosso. He is well in front of his brethren in purse earnings this year, his mounts having earned more than $31 million, an all-time record and more than $5 million ahead of his brother Jose, who is second.
Brown won three races, including with Bricks and Mortar and Uni, to strengthen his bid for a fourth straight Eclipse Award as champion trainer. He leads all trainers in purse earnings this year with $29.5 million, also a record and $5 million more than Mitole’s trainer, second-place Steve Asmussen. Brad Cox, who should have two champions with British Idiom and Covfefe, also should get some support.
Seth Klarman and William Lawrence, who campaign Bricks and Mortar, are atop the owner standings with $8.1 million. Along with Brown and Irad Ortiz Jr., their association with a potential Horse of the Year should bolster their chances of winning an Eclipse Award as champion owner.