2022 Eclipse Awards: Epicenter

Epicenter probably was the best dirt-route 3-year-old to race in North America during 2022, and the favorite to be crowned a champion in the 3-year-old male division. Ironically, he was the best horse in the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve. It was a race Epicenter lost, his second-place finish leaving the door ajar for one of the other two Eclipse Award finalists, Modern Games and Taiba, to sneak through it.

Saying a horse was “best” in a race he didn’t win can carry a whiff of arrogance, but in this case, it absolutely feels right. The 2022 Derby was the fastest-paced renewal in years, Epicenter a close fifth after a half-mile in a brutal 45.36 seconds. He made his move around the turn, the tempo still enervating, and was on the way to victory at the furlong grounds when 80-1 shot Rich Strike cruised up the inside and ran Epicenter down. Rich Strike had been 18th after six furlongs, saving his energy; the four horses in front of Epicenter at that stage finished between 10th and 20th. A losing race that ought to have been a winning one.

After a hot pace undid him in the Derby, Epicenter lost the Preakness in great part because of a slow pace. Squeezed back at the start, Epicenter and regular rider Joel Rosario found themselves eighth of nine through the early and middle stages. Closing into tepid splits, they simply could not reel in pace-advantaged Early Voting.

:: Full list of 2022 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Two Triple Crown defeats were tough – the Derby especially so for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, still seeking his first win in it. But good losses count, too, in championship consideration, and along with his three second-place finishes in 2022, Epicenter notched four wins.

After taking a loss to a wholly inferior foe, Call Me Midnight, in the Lecomte Stakes to start his season, Epicenter won the Risen Star by 2 3/4 lengths and the $1 million Louisiana Derby by 2 1/2 lengths, geared down late in both races. Freshened following the Preakness, he ran solidly capturing the Jim Dandy before reaching his zenith, crushing two capable colts, Cyberknife and Zandon, to win the Runhappy Travers by 5 1/2 lengths.

The Travers showed Epicenter at his best. With guidance from a great horseman and his staff, a one-time front-runner wrapped his brain around the act and art of racing, learning to rate and ration his speed, saving the best part of his race for last – as he did in the Travers.

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Bred by Westwind Farm, Epicenter raced for Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds, who purchased the son of Not This Time and Silent Candy, by Candy Ride, for $260,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale. And while it’s surely not always the grand-looking Thoroughbreds that prove the fastest ones, Epicenter has looks to rival his talent. Robust, statuesque, strong-willed, and dominant yet manageable, Epicenter was Asmussen’s best hope to win a Derby because, the trainer said, this was a colt who could take so much more during morning exercise than any of the others he’d brought to the race.

Epicenter’s racing career ended at a nadir. The colt pulled up with an injury on the backstretch of the Breeders’ Cup Classic – a bad incident that could have been much worse, with Epicenter sound enough to stand stud in 2023. But don’t think of the Classic. Remember the Travers, a special horse at the peak of his powers.

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