DEL MAR, Calif. – The first Breeders’ Cup ever run here at Del Mar is over, and it was a doozy, with some wild results and, most unfortunately, a main track bias that impacted many of the results. After playing in favor of speed on Wednesday and Thursday, Del Mar’s main track seemed tilted toward outside runners on Friday. But this “tilt” became an outright bias on Saturday, which is a shame, because championship races like these should be decided on fair, even surfaces, not on a main track that, especially on Saturday, made horses who were running on the inside look like they were disappearing into a black hole. Every horse, that is, but one. We’ll get to that later. Anyway, now that this Breeders’ Cup is in the books (with a couple of asterisks in my personal ledger), let’s take a look at where each equine Eclipse Award division now stands: TWO-YEAR-OLD FILLY – This division is going to take some reflection beyond this Saturday night first take. Certainly, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies upsetter Caledonia Road will be a serious player for this title, even if her victory was aided by the main track bias. Caledonia Road won the Juvenile Fillies, by far the division’s biggest race, by a daylight margin, and she is now 2 for 3, with her only loss being a second-place finish in the Frizette, in just her second start, to Separationofpowers, whom she thrashed Saturday. Moonshine Memories, who was the ranking 2-year-old filly going into Saturday off two straight Grade 1 victories, now seems up against it title wise. The Eclipse Award electorate won’t like Moonshine Memories’s tired seventh in the Juvenile Fillies, even if she was on the dead rail. But I do suspect that there will be considerable title support for Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Rushing Fall. This division is historically the property of main track horses, and Rushing Fall is a turf filly. But she’s also now 3 for 3, and has made a favorable impression on everyone. TWO-YEAR-OLD MALE – Has there ever been a 2-year-old male champion with one career victory? There will likely be one this year as Good Magic, second in his first two career starts, including an excellent try in the Champagne Stakes in which he was beaten just a half-length after being fairly close to a pace that disintegrated, blew his Juvenile field away after racing away from the dead inside, even if he was inside a rival in the early stages. As for heavily favored Bolt d’Oro, he didn’t break cleanly (again) and he was absurdly wide even for a day when being outside was most definitely the place to be. That said, Bolt d’Oro’s third-place finish in the Juvenile was a shadow of his electrifying performance in the FrontRunner. Perhaps fears that Bolt d’Oro would regress off his very fast FrontRunner (fears I admittedly dismissed) were well-founded. THREE-YEAR-OLD FILLY – On the basis of her three Grade 1 victories this year in the Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, and CCA Oaks, Abel Tasman came into Friday’s Distaff as the most accomplished 3-year-old filly in the land. And her closing second in the Distaff to likely Older Dirt Female champion Forever Unbridled, combined with Paradise Woods and Elate failing to follow through on their late-season bids for this divisional title and finishing behind Abel Tasman in the Distaff, makes Abel Tasman the deserving 3-year-old filly champ. As an aside, while it may not have mattered, I’m still bewildered at how the Distaff was run. Paradise Woods was supposed to be loose on the early lead. Instead, she sat off Champagne Room through slow early fractions – fractions so slow that Elate, who does not have real early speed, was only a length or so behind Paradise Woods in the early stages. Whatever chance Paradise Woods had in the Distaff was conceded when her pace advantage was taken away from her. THREE-YEAR-OLD MALE – Even before Breeders’ Cup pre-entries were taken, we knew West Coast was the easy choice in this division on the basis of his big scores in the Grade 1 Travers and Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby. His willing third place finish in the Classic does not change a thing here, but it should make everyone feel good about voting for him. OLDER DIRT FEMALE – Forever Unbridled doesn’t have as many Grade 1 victories this year as Stellar Wind (who performed dismally in the Distaff off her long layoff), but she won the right Grade 1’s. Forever Unbridled overcame a terrible pace setup to beat two-time champion Songbird in the Personal Ensign, and she prevailed in the very important Distaff in what was, because of injury, only her third start this year. Forever Unbridled, who is pointing to a start against males in the Pegasus World Cup, is the obvious choice for this divisional Eclipse Award. OLDER DIRT MALE – For all the uncertainty going into the Classic, and the high drama late on the far turn when Gun Runner and Collected really threw it down, Gun Runner reminded us late in the Classic what the Breeders’ Cup is supposed to be all about. The Breeders’ Cup is meant to crown champions, and there is no champion this year who is more deserving than Gun Runner, now a cinch to be champion older dirt male, and that’s for starters. More on that in a bit. Gun Runner made the Classic his fourth straight Grade 1 victory, following up on romps in the Stephen Foster, the Whitney, and the Woodward. He finally turned the tables on Arrogate (whom he finished behind in their two previous meetings) and got his first victory at 1 1/4 miles after previously being 0 for 3 at the trip. But while that’s a lot, there was more to Gun Runner’s Classic win. On a day when the inside was not the place to be on Del Mar’s main track, Gun Runner set a strong pace on the inside under pressure from a high-class performer in Collected, who was on a raging four-race win streak of his own. Despite absorbing all of that pace pressure while running on the deeper part of the track, Gun Runner turned Collected away in upper stretch, never allowing anyone else really into the race, and scored with complete authority. Of course, the big disappointment in the Classic was Arrogate. He ducked in at the start from post 1, was quickly straightened, but never showed any interest in getting into the game, and plodded along to be a dead-heat fifth with Gunnevera, finishing behind, of all horses, War Story. As noted here frequently, I am a big Arrogate fan. He did things during his four-race run in the Travers, the 2016 Classic, the Pegasus World Cup, and Dubai World Cup that impressed me in ways very few horses have ever done. But Arrogate’s dismal San Diego, his sub-par if close second in the Pacific Classic, and his disinterested effort Saturday suggests he lost his desire, or his will to compete. Do those three losses at the end of Arrogate’s career mean the great things he did during that incredible four race run never happened? Of course not. But those career-closing losses do tarnish his legacy, and that’s too bad. The Arrogate I remember best deserved better. TURF FEMALE – With even just a good effort in defeat in the Filly & Mare Turf, let alone a victory, Lady Eli could have secured a divisional title that has been cruelly elusive for her. But after being taken up when squeezed back in the early stages of the Filly & Mare Turf, an incident that caused her to be cut up, Lady Eli did little running, checking in seventh in the worst finish of her career. Lady Eli fans should take heart, however. Upset Filly & Mare Turf winner Wuheida was making her U.S. debut Saturday, and the Eclipse Award electorate seems reluctant to reward such one-shot European shippers, as evidenced last year when Flintshire was voted champion despite losing the Breeders’ Cup Turf to European invader Highland Reel. That, in combination with a couple of other factors, suggests that Lady Eli is still the most likely to come away with this divisional honor. Lady Eli has the “body of work” angle going for her with wins this year in the Grade 1 Gamely, Grade 1 Diana, and Grade 2 Ballston Spa, and a narrowly beaten second in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley to an opponent in Dickinson that Lady Eli has since mastered. And there is also the sentimental factor of Lady Eli’s laminitis backstory. I dislike “make good” Eclipse Awards, but I can sure see it in Lady Eli’s case. TURF MALE – After World Approval delivered yet another strong performance in the Mile, making it his third straight Grade 1 victory on the heels of scores in the Fourstardave at Saratoga and the Woodbine Mile, the only thing that stood between him and this divisional Eclipse Award was a victory by Beach Patrol in the Turf two races later. If Beach Patrol landed the Turf, it would have been his third straight Grade I victory after he earlier won the Arlington Million and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. And while each horse would have had their championship supporters, I do believe a triple consisting of the Arlington Million, Joe Hirsch, and Turf would have been clearly stronger than a triple of the Fourstardave, Woodbine Mile, and Mile. But Beach Patrol finished second in the Turf, denied by only a half-length, and that narrow margin will now turn out to be more than enough to make World Approval the very obvious champion in this division. FEMALE SPRINTER – Bar of Gold’s implausible 66-1 upset of the Filly & Mare Sprint did not help clarify matters in this division. The Filly & Mare Sprint is the big one for female sprinters, but even if she won it, it’s tough seeing Bar of Gold as a likely champ considering her only other win this year came on the turf against New York-breds. Unique Bella saw her aspirations for this title evaporate when she caved in the Filly & Mare Sprint after moving to the dead inside, and so did, Skye Diamonds, who simply came up empty. Paulassilverlining didn’t do much running on Saturday, either, but at least she put together two Grade 1s and one Grade 2 sprint wins earlier in the year. Despite finishing 2017 meekly, Paulassilverlining might be the least unpalatable choice here. MALE SPRINTER – Roy H, winner of the Sprint, is a slam dunk for this Eclipse Award, even if he rode the crest of the track bias with a perfect, wide, stalking trip, while favored Drefong was buried for much of the race on the dead rail. Roy H also won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship this year along with the Grade 2 True North at Belmont (interestingly riding the crest of a strong outside track bias), and might well have won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby instead of finishing second if he was not carried very wide by a riderless Drefong. No other male sprinter this year has comparable credentials. HORSE OF THE YEAR – This is easy. It’s Gun Runner in what should be a landslide. The only uncertainty here is the identity of the other two horses who will play sacrificial lambs as the other two Horse of the Year finalists. My guess is World Approval and West Coast.