2024 Eclipse Awards: Cogburn

It would be an understatement to call Cogburn a quick horse.

He might, quite frankly, be faster than the proverbial speeding bullet.

At least it feels that way – and the numbers do back up his exceptional speed.

Cogburn set a North American course record when winning the Grade 1 Jaipur in June at Saratoga – and the effort earned him the highest Beyer Speed Figure of 2024. For those reasons and more, Cogburn is an Eclipse Award finalist for champion male sprinter of 2024.

Cogburn opened his 5-year-old season by running 5 1/2 furlongs on good turf in 1:03.16 to capture the Grade 2 Twin Spires Turf Sprint in May at Churchill Downs. For the effort, he earned a Beyer of 107.

But there was more to come from Cogburn. He covered 5 1/2 furlongs on firm ground in the Jaipur in 59.80 seconds to lower the North American standard of 1:00.21 that Carotari set in 2019.

:: Full list of 2024 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

“I’ve had some of the fastest horses in the world, some of the fastest horses of all time, and he’s still the first one I’ve ever had run five and a half furlongs in under a minute,” trainer Steve Asmussen told New York Racing Association publicity after the Jaipur. “Five and a half furlongs in under a minute. That’s not five-eighths, that’s five and a half. That’s basically a sixteenth of a mile faster than a fast horse.”

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. was aboard for the Jaipur, an effort for which Cogburn earned a Beyer of 114.

“So fast. I can’t believe it,” Ortiz told NYRA after the race. “He was a rocket ship [out of the gate]. After that, I just sit on him and relax. When it was the time to go, turning for home, I felt like he was loaded. I asked him to go and he responded really well. I asked him, and he gave me what he [had], all the way to the wire. That was nice.”

Cogburn put on another display of raw speed in his next start, when he won the Grade 2, $2 million Ainsworth Turf Sprint Stakes in September at Kentucky Downs. He covered six furlongs on firm turf in 1:07.68.

From there, Cogburn finished his season with a close fifth in the Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint after taking his rivals through a half-mile in a grueling 43.72 seconds. He went 3 for 4 overall in 2024 and earned $1,802,000.

It was announced last summer that Cogburn would launch his stallion career at WinStar Farm in 2025. Bill Heiligbrodt, who raced champion male sprinter Mitole, co-owns Cogburn with his wife, Corinne, and Clark Brewster.

“I have had many fast horses over the years, but Cogburn is as fast as anyone,” said Heiligbrodt. who owned 2019 champion sprinter Mitole, in a press release making the announcement.

“There are not many times in life you get to stand the fastest horse in the world,” Elliott Walden of WinStar said in the same press release. “I was in awe of his performance in the Jaipur.”

Cogburn is a son of Not This Time and the stakes-winning Saintly Look mare In a Jif. He was bred in Kentucky by Bellary Bay Bloodstock. Cogburn has compiled a career record of nine wins from 16 starts for earnings of $2,422,630.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.