The morning of Sept. 29, the connections of Mo Forza had a fairly promising turf prospect on their hands. A five-race maiden, yes, but a promising prospect. What a difference three months can make. Mo Forza finally won a race the afternoon of Sept. 29, and that was just the start of things. Mo Forza followed up his maiden win with a victory in the Grade 2 Twilight Derby. For an encore, he won the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby, and to put an exclamation point on his rapid rise, Mo Forza ended his campaign with a sharp score in the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile. All his stakes wins were in races restricted to 3-year-olds, but Eclipse Award voters still rallied behind Mo Forza and made him a finalist to be champion older male turf horse. Bricks and Mortar is sure to win this award, but Mo Forza did his people proud just becoming a finalist. :: Full list of 2019 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories Peter Miller trains Mo Forza for Barry and Diane Abrams's Bardy Farm and Onofrio Pecoraro’s OG Boss. Barry Abrams is a former longtime trainer and Bardy Farms bred Mo Forza through a mating of Uncle Mo and the Unusual Heat mare Inflamed. Mo Forza never has run what could be called a bad race, and the addition of blinkers with help from natural maturation moved him far forward between June and December. “He’s like big kid that finally learns to use his feet and hands and it’s all over,” Miller said following the Mathis Brothers. “He always had the talent, but he never really could put it all together I think we haven’t seen the best of him yet.” Mo Forza’s stakes wins came between one mile and 1 1/8 miles, and where jockey Joel Rosario positioned Mo Forza just behind the leaders in the Twilight Derby, Mo Forza came from ninth to win the one-mile Mathis Brothers. The colt, a handsome, strapping dark bay, has tactical speed to go with a turn of foot, exactly the combination that can produce a top-class turf performer. “He is just starting to learn and once he relaxes a little bit better and doesn’t want to lay in when he passes that last horse, I think the sky is the limit. He’s just a tremendous horse,” Miller said. Mo Forza came a long way in a short time during 2019, and if his trainer is right, 2020 should bring Mo of the same.