2020 Eclipse Awards: Snap Decision

Snap Decision had won 2 of 18 starts by the time he left trainer Shug McGaughey’s stable in late 2018. Over the next two years, Snap Decision had a career turnaround, developing into an outstanding jumper.

After finishing second in his first two starts over hurdles in maiden races in spring 2019, Snap Decision has reeled off seven consecutive wins, including five stakes. In 2020, Snap Decision was unbeaten in three stakes, gaining a spot among the finalists for the Eclipse Award as the year’s outstanding steeplechaser.

Owned by the Bruton Street-US partnership of Mike Hankin, Charlie Fenwick, and Charlie Noell, Snap Decision began his 2020 campaign with a comprehensive stakes win by 4 1/4 lengths against open company in the David Semmes Memorial at 2 1/8 miles on the Virginia Gold Cup undercard at Great Meadow Racecourse in The Plains, Va., on June 27.

Snap Decision, trained by Jack Fisher, had his final two starts of the season at Saratoga, winning the Jonathan Kiser Novice Stakes at 2 1/16 miles at odds of 3-10 on July 22 and the Michael G. Walsh Novice Stakes at 2 3/8 miles at odds of 9-10 on Aug. 19.

:: Full list of 2020 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

The photo-finish camera was not needed to determine the winner of Snap Decision’s Saratoga races. Snap Decision won the Kiser by 1 1/2 lengths and pulled clear in the Walsh to prevail by 5 1/4 lengths in a field of eight.

Sean McDermott rode Snap Decision in 2020. McDermott followed a familiar style in each win, keeping Snap Decision off the pace for the first 1 1/2 miles.

The win in the Kiser was a highlight for Fisher.

“I thought in the first race at Saratoga [McDermott] left him with too much to do,” Fisher recalled in late December. “I thought there was no way he would win going down the backstretch.”

Fisher described Snap Decision as “the kind of horse we’re looking for as a jumper.”

Snap Decision was third in two stakes for McGaughey in 2017 – the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park in March and the Better Talk Now Stakes at Saratoga in August.

Snap Decision, a 6-year-old gelding in 2020, is by Hard Spun and has a remarkable female family. Bred by Phipps Stable, Snap Decision is a half-brother to Mr Speaker, a millionaire on the track best known for winning the Grade 1 Belmont Derby in 2014.

Snap Decision is out of Salute, a stakes-placed mare whose dam, the undefeated Personal Ensign, was the champion older mare of 1988 and one of the finest racemares in history.

More than 30 years later, a gelding from Personal Ensign’s family is thriving in jump races.