Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby had two of the best middle-distance 3-year-olds that raced in Europe during 2021. Adayar won the Epsom Derby and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, while Hurricane Lane won the St. Leger Stakes and beat Adayar in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, where he was third.

Everything was in place for Gamine to be an overwhelming choice for a second straight Eclipse Award as champion filly and mare sprinter. Then, the starting gates opened.

A third-place finish as the heavy favorite in the Nov. 6 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar made for a disappointing conclusion to 2021 for Gamine, whose preceding efforts were otherwise brilliant and made her a finalist in this category once again.

Michael McCarthy long had suspected that Ce Ce could become a top-class performer around one turn, given the right circumstances. In 2021, those hopes were realized in dramatic fashion.

Five of the six races for Ce Ce during her 5-year-old campaign of 2021 were run at seven furlongs or shorter, and four of those resulted in victory – including the marquee race that often decides a divisional championship, the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

“She really put everything together the way we thought she could,” said McCarthy, who trains Ce Ce for owner-breeder Bo Hirsch.

Bella Sofia got a relatively late start to her racing career, but once under way, the dark bay filly wasted little time in flaunting her wares.

It was May 6 of her 3-year-old season that trainer Rudy Rodriguez finally had Bella Sofia ready for her debut. Overlooked at 8-1 in a six-furlong maiden race at Belmont Park, she ran off and hid, prevailing by 11 1/4 lengths and earning a 94 Beyer Speed Figure.

Mystic Guide joins Maxfield as the second Godolphin homebred among the three finalists for champion older dirt male. Both were from the same crop, but while Maxfield was the more precocious of the two, by 2021, at age 4, they were both among the leaders of their division.

A Grade 1 winner at 2, when he had to miss the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and subsequently hampered by another injury at 3 that confined him to one start in more than 14 months, Maxfield at age 4 in 2021 was finally able to put together a proper campaign that repeatedly showcased his high-grade talent.

Maxfield came into 2021 having made just four starts combined at ages 2 and 3. The patience displayed during those years by trainer Brendan Walsh and the team at Godolphin – most notably Jimmy Bell – gave Maxfield the chance to shine when finally right, and was he ever right in 2021.

Knicks Go is favored to be named both champion older dirt male and Horse of the Year for 2021 following a brilliant 5-year-old season bookended by victories in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, with three other stakes wins, including the Grade 1 Whitney, in between.

Marche Lorraine made only one start in North America in 2021, but it was a doozy. A 49-1 shocker in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff catapulted the 5-year-old from anonymity to notoriety and earned her a dual distinction – first Japan-based winner of a Breeders’ Cup race on dirt and first Japan-based Eclipse Awards finalist as outstanding older dirt female.

Every once in a while a horse comes along where when he trains, it’s so effortless, and so brilliant, that everyone – novice or weary railbird – sees the obvious talent, and remarks, “Who’s that?”

Life Is Good is that kind of horse. Brilliant in his morning training, brilliant in his races, he had a 3-year-old year that, though interrupted by injury and involving a trainer change, was so compelling it made him an obvious finalist for champion 3-year-old male.

Essential Quality is seeking to become only the third 2-year-old male champion to repeat at 3 since 1979, when Spectacular Bid completed a streak of three straight that included Triple Crown winners Affirmed and Seattle Slew.

In the more than four decades since, as horses have raced fewer times and become more specialized, rare is the male horse who can lead his brethren at 2 and then move on to be the best the following year, when the demands include the Triple Crown races and potential starts in the fall against elders.