Eclipse Award ballots are due at 2 p.m. Sunday. Here’s how mine looks as of New Year’s Day in the 12 equine categories:

Steeplechaser: 1. Demonstrative; 2. Divine Fortune; 3. Makari. In a division with just six Grade 1 events, Demonstrative won three of them, and Divine Fortune won two. Demonstrative came out on top in three of their five head-to-head meetings. (Just imagine how much better the sport would be if the best of any of the flat-racing divisions squared off so often.)

There are only 281 people with a say in who wins the Eclipse Awards, a fact that makes the appeal of this column limited. Still, if you’ve got nothing better to do …

It should be noted that the obvious oddity in the likely results of this year’s voting will be that the reigning two-time Horse of the Year will not be a champion of anything – the undefeated, reigning two-time Horse of the Year, who was perfect in his four 2014 starts.

It seems as if everyone with a digital platform and a key to the quarter pole has weighed in by now on the subject of 2014 Horse of the Year. Clearly, there is nothing left to say.

That said, there is always room to burst a few lingering bubbles, starting with this:

There are many worthy candidates for Horse of the Year.

Racing has an Eclipse Awards problem that looks likely to continue when the 2014 champions are announced in January: For the fifth time in the last six years, the statuette for best older male probably will be redundantly bestowed upon a grass horse who is already being honored as the turf champion, instead of being awarded to the nation’s leading older dirt horse.

Winners of the 2013 Eclipse Awards, selected by voters from Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Click on a winner to read DRF's profile. Winners were announced Jan. 18 at the 43nd Annual Eclipse Awards dinner at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

photo by: Horsephotos/NTRA

The winner of the $750,000 first-place prize and the title of 2013 DRF/NTRA Handicapper of the Year at the 14th annual Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship last January was Jim Benes, a 51-year-old professional horseplayer from Countryside, Ill.