PALM BEACH, Fla. – Flightline was an odds-on favorite in winning all six career starts – but those mutuels were huge in comparison to what you might have gotten at the Eclipse Awards. In fact, nobody in their right mind would have laid a dollar to a thousand that Flightline would be denied Horse of the Year honors before the 2022 Eclipse Awards were revealed Thursday night at the 52nd annual awards dinner and ceremony held at The Breakers, the famed luxury resort nestled against the Atlantic Ocean. True to form, Flightline crushed the competition, winning all but three of the 242 votes cast for Horse of the Year. Flightline, whose 8 1/4-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5 at Keeneland capped a brief but spectacular career unmatched in recent times, also was a slam-dunk winner of the Eclipse for older dirt male. The newly turned 5-year-old horse soon will embark on his stud career at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky. Flightline, by Tapit, won each of his six races by at least six lengths when earning Beyer Speed Figures ranging from 105 to 126. Bred in Kentucky by Summer Wind Farm, and based in Southern California with trainer John Sadler, he went 3 for 3 in 2022, winning the Metropolitan Mile, Pacific Classic, and BC Classic, all of them Grade 1 events. He raced for the partnership of Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, Summer Wind Equine, West Point Thoroughbreds, and Woodford Racing. :: Full list of 2022 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories Of 258 eligible Eclipse voters, 246 (95.3 percent) took part in the voting. Finalists were determined in each category by voters’ top three selections, using a 10-5-1 point basis. Eclipse winners are determined solely by first-place votes. A lack of suspense involving anything to do with Flightline was fully expected – just as other categories also made for easy pickings. Forte, Wonder Wheel, Nest, Malathaat, and Goodnight Olive all were runaway winners in their respective categories, while among humans, Godolphin and Irad Ortiz Jr. were dominant in theirs. But other voting races were tighter. The closest vote total was for outstanding trainer, with Todd Pletcher edging Chad Brown by a 108-95 count. Forty more votes (plus three abstentions) were scattered among six other trainers, including John Sadler (16) and Steve Asmussen (12). This was the eighth time Pletcher, 55, has earned the Eclipse for top trainer, but the first since 2014. His first Eclipse came in 2004. Other relatively close races were for male sprinter, female turf horse, steeplechase horse, and apprentice rider. In the Horse of the Year vote, only Country Grammer, Life Is Good, and Malathaat received a vote besides Flightline. There were four voter abstensions. In the older male category, Flightline got 240 votes, while Country Grammer, Jackie’s Warrior, Life Is Good, and Olympiad all got one each (there were two abstentions). For 2-year-old male, Forte, trained by Pletcher for Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable, got 243 votes, with Cave Rock getting two and the Irish-bred Victoria Road getting one. For 2-year-old filly, Wonder Wheel, trained by Mark Casse for the D J Stable of Leonard Green and family, received 240 votes. The others went to Hoosier Philly (3), Meditate (2), and Julia Shining (1). Voting for top 3-year-old male wasn’t quite as close as some may have thought it would be, as Epicenter clearly outpolled Taiba by a 155-66 tally. The other votes went to Modern Games (18), Cyberknife (4), and Rich Strike (1). There were two abstentions. Epicenter, trained by Asmussen for Winchell Thoroughbreds, was first or second in his first seven starts of 2022, including a resounding triumph in the Travers, before he suffered an injury during the BC Classic that ultimately forced his retirement. Another Pletcher trainee, Nest, was an easy winner for 3-year-old filly. She got 238 votes, with Tuesday (4), Echo Zulu (2), and Secret Oath (1) getting the rest. There was one abstention. Nest is owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Repole Stable, and Michael House. Pletcher had yet another divisional Eclipse winner in Malathaat, whose 4-for-6 record as a 4-year-old filly of 2022 earned her the title of top older dirt female. Malathaat, owned by Shadwell Stable, got 241 votes, followed by Clairiere (2), Goodnight Olive (2), and Letruska (1). Goodnight Olive was one of two Eclipse winners for Brown when garnering 228 votes as top female sprinter. The 18 remaining votes were spread among five others, led by Caravel with 12. Goodnight Olive, owned by First Row Partners and Team Hanley, went 4 for 4 as a 4-year-old, capped by a victory in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint. Elite Power, winner of the BC Sprint for Juddmonte Farms, outpolled his Bill Mott stablemate, BC Dirt Mile winner Cody’s Wish, by a 108-70 count in earning the Eclipse for top male sprinter. Jackie’s Warrior was third with 62 votes, with three others accounting for the six remaining votes. :: DRF Bets players have exclusive access to FREE DRF Past Performances - Classic or Formulator! Join today.  Modern Games, trained overseas by Charlie Appleby for Godolphin, attracted 189 votes as top male turf horse; the homebred colt went 2 for 2 in North America, including a convincing score as a 3-year-old facing older horses in the BC Mile. His older Godolphin/Appleby stablemate, BC Turf winner Rebel’s Romance, was next with 50 votes, with the remaining seven votes scattered among six others. Symbolic of his dominance in recent years with female turf horses, Brown went one-two when Regal Glory (96 votes) got the Eclipse over her stablemate In Italian (51). Regal Glory, owned by Peter Brant, won three Grade 1s from seven starts as a 6-year-old of 2022. Voting for top filly-mare turf runner was the most splintered of all categories, with six more horses attracting at least one vote, including War Like Goddess (47) and Tuesday (40). There was one abstention. Abstentions, as usual, were plentiful (29) when it came to the steeplechase category topped by the Irish-bred Hewick. Trained by John J. Hanlon for T.J. McDonald, Hewick got 113 votes, followed by Snap Decision (88), Down Royal (15), and Howyabud (1). It was another huge night for Godolphin as the worldwide powerhouse swept the Eclipse in both the owner and breeder categories for a second straight year. For top owner, Godolphin received 195 votes, followed by Peter Brant (20) and the Flightline partnership (11). Four other ownership entities also received votes, while four voters abstained. For top breeder, Godolphin got 182 votes, followed by Summer Wind Equine with 30. Three other breeders got votes, with three voters abstaining. Owned by the ruling Maktoum family of Dubai, Godolphin now has been voted the Eclipse Award for top owner six times, the others coming in 2006 as Darley, 2009, 2012, 2020, and 2021. This was their second Eclipse for outstanding breeder. For outstanding jockey, Irad Ortiz Jr. won the award for the fourth time in five years, having previously won in 2018-19-20. Ortiz, who set a record in 2022 with $37 million in mount earnings, garnered 218 votes, far ahead of Flavien Prat (24). Three other jockeys drew one vote each, with one voter abstaining. Jose Antonio Gomez, who rode primarily in New York and Pennsylvania, drew 112 votes in winning the Eclipse for top apprentice rider. Vicente Del-Cid, who rode exclusively in Louisiana, was a close second with 91, followed by Jeiron Barbosa (18) of the Maryland circuit. Three more riders got at least one vote, with 19 abstentions. Including the Horse of the Year, which was the last award presented, there were 17 Eclipse Award winners revealed Thursday evening. In addition, a previously announced Special Eclipse Award for career excellence was presented amid generous applause to Jay Privman, who retired in September following a highly distinguished 38-year career as a racing journalist, the last 24 for Daily Racing Form. Additional awards were acknowledged during the evening, including the 2022 Horseplayer of the Year to David Harrison and six previously announced winners in media categories. Those media winners were Wendy Wooley, photography; Tim Layden, feature/commentary writing; Tom Law, news/enterprise writing; NBC Sports (Lindsay Schanzer, producer), for live television programming of the 2022 Breeders’ Cup; NBC Sports (Jack Felling, coordinating producer), for its feature television programming on Cody’s Wish during the Breeders’ Cup; and HRRN (Mike Penna), audio/multimedia for its Breeders’ Cup programming. Eclipse voters are from Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, whose bloc includes racing secretaries at NTRA member tracks and field personnel with Equibase. All votes were due in early January, with all category finalists except for Horse of the Year having been announced Jan. 7. Finalists for Horse of the Year were announced once the dinner was under way. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.