Bricks and Mortar makes clean sweep of Horse of the Year and titles for connections

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For only the second time in the 49-year history of the Eclipse Awards, the Horse of the Year and all the people associated with him swept their categories, as the Runhappy Eclipse Awards dinner on Thursday night at Gulfstream Park provided a glorious epilogue to the 2019 season of Bricks and Mortar.

Bricks and Mortar was revealed as the Horse of the Year over fellow finalists Mitole and Maximum Security, all of whom won divisional titles, with Bricks and Mortar a unanimous choice among all 241 voters for champion male turf horse. Mitole was named champion male sprinter, and Maximum Security champion 3-year-old male.

This Bricks and Mortar operation produced an undefeated 2019 campaign that included six victories, five in Grade 1 races, and helped propel his human connections to titles, too.

2019 Eclipse Awards: Complete list of winners with profiles and voting totals

Chad Brown, the trainer of Bricks and Mortar, won his fourth straight Eclipse Award as champion trainer after setting a single-season record among trainers for purse earnings.

Irad Ortiz Jr., who rode Bricks and Mortar, was named champion jockey for the second straight year, and also led all riders with a record haul for purse earnings.

Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence, the owners of Bricks and Mortar, got their first Eclipse Award as champion owner.

And George Strawbridge Jr., who bred Bricks and Mortar by mating Giant’s Causeway to the Ocean Crest mare Beyond the Waves, was rewarded with his first Eclipse Award as champion breeder.

The Eclipse Awards were first held in early 1972 to acknowledge the 1971 racing season. Only once previously, for the 1981 season, had the Horse of the Year and all those associated with him swept their categories. That year, John Henry was Horse of the Year. His trainer was Ron McAnally, jockey Chris McCarron, owners the Dotsam Stable of Sam and Dorothy Rubin, and breeder Golden Chance Farm.

Bricks and Mortar, age 5 last year, won his six races at six different tracks in six different states. He captured the inaugural Pegasus World Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park in January, and followed that with victories in the Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds, Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, Manhattan at Belmont Park, and Arlington Million at Arlington Park before concluding his racing career in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita. He is now in Japan, awaiting the beginning of the breeding season.

The next biggest winner of the night was Covfefe, who was named both champion 3-year-old filly and champion female sprinter.

Other equine divisional winners for 2019 were Storm the Court (2-year-old male), British Idiom (2-year-old filly), Vino Rosso (older dirt male), Midnight Bisou (older dirt female), Uni (female turf), and Winston C (steeplechaser).

Bricks and Mortar (Turf), British Idiom (Juvenile Fillies), Covfefe (Filly and Mare Sprint), Mitole (Sprint), Storm the Court (Juvenile), Uni (Mile), and Vino Rosso (Classic) all won Breeders’ Cup races.

Brown also trains Uni, giving his horses two divisional titles in addition to Horse of the Year.

Brad Cox trains British Idiom and Covfefe, so his runners took home awards in three categories.

Midnight Bisou and Mitole gave Steve Asmussen trainees two divisional titles.

The other human category, apprentice jockey, went to Kazushi Kimura.

The top three receiving votes in all 12 equine and five human categories were announced earlier this month as finalists, based on a 10-5-1 points system. The winners were determined solely by the first-place votes among 241 voters representing Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which includes employees of Equibase.

In the Horse of the Year tally, Bricks and Mortar received 204 votes; Mitole, 19; Maximum Security, 14; and Midnight Bisou, Omaha Beach, and Vino Rosso each had 1. There was 1 abstention.

Most of the divisional honors related to Bricks and Mortar were lopsided results. Bricks and Mortar was a unanimous choice as male turf horse, Ortiz received 205 votes for jockey, Brown 204 for trainer, and Klaravich and Lawrence 184 for owner.

Strawbridge had the narrowest margin. He received 122 votes, 28 more than runner-up Calumet Farm, in a category in which seven other people or farms received votes.

The closest call was for champion apprentice jockey, in which Kimura got 74 votes to beat runner-up Julio Correa by 14.

The closest category for the horses was older dirt male, in which Vino Rosso defeated Mitole – who also won the Met Mile – by 21 votes, 129-108.

Many others won in runaways.

Mitole got 236 votes for champion male sprinter, Covfefe 235 for female sprinter, British Idiom 222 for 2-year-old filly, Maximum Security 217 for 3-year-old male, and Midnight Bisou 210 for older dirt female.

Several categories that seemed as though they might offer close results ended up with fairly comfortable margins for the winners.

Covfefe got 189 votes for champion 3-year-old filly to easily outpoll runner-up Guarana, who had 19.

Winston C got 158 votes as champion steeplechaser, more than 100 better than runner-up Brain Power, who had 44.

Storm the Court won the 2-year-old male title by nearly 100 votes, 147-51, over second-place Structor.

Uni more than doubled up on second-place Sistercharlie, 126-61, for female turf horse – giving Brown a one-two finish in that category – with Got Stormy third with 33 votes.

Also Thursday night, Scott Coles received his Eclipse Award as handicapper of the year for winning last year’s National Horseplayers Championship.

In addition, media members who won Eclipses in various disciplines, announced earlier, were acknowledged, including Jim Leuenberger, who was honored for photography for a picture on drf.com and in Daily Racing Form of the pivotal moment in the Derby when Maximum Security veered out.

Other media winners were TVG for live racing programming, Fox Sports 2 for television feature, Joe Nevills of the Paulick Report for feature/commentary writing, Bryce Miller of the San Diego Union-Tribune for news/enterprise writing, and the Horse Racing Radio Network for audio/multi-media internet.