When Bricks and Mortar returned from more than a year on the sidelines in December 2018, his trainer, Chad Brown, was thinking only as far ahead as August. Bricks and Mortar’s sweet spot was 1 1/8 to 1 1/4 miles on turf, and there existed four key races for him in 2019: The Pegasus World Cup Invitational Turf over 1 3/16 miles in January; the Old Forester Turf Classic over 1 1/8 miles in May; the Manhattan over 1 ¼ miles in June; and the Arlington Million over 1 ¼ miles in August. :: Full list of 2019 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories Bricks and Mortar’s owners, Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence, might’ve dreamed of winning all four of those seven-figure stakes. Brown figured if the dream came true, he’d work things out one way or another the rest of the year. After the Million, all the top-level turf races in North America are at one mile or 1 ½ miles. Bricks and Mortar, if he still was going good, would have to cut back or stretch out. Bricks and Mortar won the Pegasus by 2 ½ lengths over the outstanding Irish filly Magic Wand. He won the Turf Classic by a half-length over Qurbaan, won the Manhattan by 1 ½ lengths over stablemate Robert Bruce, and beat Magic Wand again, this time by a half-length, in the Million. Check, check, check, and check. Mission accomplished. Four seven-figure turf stakes. No North American grass horse ever had won so many races worth so much in a single season, and if Bricks and Mortar hadn’t raced again after Arlington, he’d still be a leading contender for turf champion of 2019. Oh, but he did. After weighing his options, Brown made two decisions: First, he’d not race Bricks and Mortar between the Million and the Breeders’ Cup, and second, he’d send the horse to the 1 ½-mile Turf rather than the Mile. Bricks and Mortar pulled no sweet trip in the BC Turf, his 1 ½-mile debut. Jockey Ryan Moore was riding English Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck in the race. “I was right next to him,” Moore said while in Hong Kong to ride Magic Wand and others in December. “Bricks and Mortar never came off the bridle.” Indeed, Bricks and Mortar, regular rider Irad Ortiz in the irons, never had a moment’s relaxation during the Turf, scrunched into traffic and forced to remain vigilant every step of the trip. He came to the leaders in midstretch and beat United by a head to cap a perfect 6-for-6 season. The 5-year-old horse, by Giant’s Causeway out of Beyond the Waves, bred by George Strawbridge, banked $6.72 million during his epic campaign, which is all but certain to land him an Eclipse as champion older turf male as well as Horse of the Year honors. It’s funny. The closest call Bricks and Mortar had all season came in his easiest race, the Grade 2 Mervin Muniz at Fair Grounds. This was merely a bridge between the Pegasus and the Turf Classic, the race was run at a snail’s pace, and Bricks and Mortar, at odds of 3-10, came within a nose of losing to an inferior opponent named Markitoff. In the end, Markitoff fell just short, his upset bid denied, if not by the horse at hand, then by destiny. Nobody was beating Bricks and Mortar in 2019, his perfect, brilliant season.