PALM BEACH, Fla. – Led by Sovereignty, the Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male, 10 of the 11 Eclipse Award- winning horses from 2025 are being pointed to campaigns in 2026. The only champion not returning in 2026 is Thorpedo Anna, the older dirt female Eclipse winner and 2024 Horse of the Year, who has been retired. She will be bred to Gun Runner. The Eclipse Awards were announced Thursday night at a rapidly moving ceremony held at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Sovereignty, winner of the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, and Travers, was a runaway winner for Horse of the Year, receiving 201 first-place votes of the 220 ballots cast. Forever Young, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, received 17 first-place votes while Ted Noffey, the undefeated 2-year-old champion, received two first-place votes. Though he did not receive any first-place votes, Journalism was announced as the third finalist for Horse of the Year at the ceremony. Finalists are determined on a 10-5-1 points system as voters are required to vote for three horses or individuals in each category. However, only first-place votes are counted in determining champions. Sovereignty carried the night for his connections as well. Godolphin, the owner and breeder of Sovereignty, won its sixth straight Eclipse for champion owner, and fifth straight for champion breeder. Bill Mott, the trainer of Sovereignty, won his fifth Eclipse Award. Mott received 85 first-place votes, compared to 50 for Brad Cox in what was the closest vote of the 17 awards announced. Sovereignty is in training at Payson Park in Indiantown, Fla., with no set race earmarked for his return. The Japan-bred and based Forever Young, despite his only race in North America being a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, was voted champion older dirt male. Forever Young, now 5, is targeting the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 14 and the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 28. “He’s still a little fatty-looking at the moment,” trainer Yoshito Yahagi said Thursday night in Florida, where he accepted Forever Young’s Eclipse Award. “Of course, we will make him prepared for the Saudi Cup in great condition.” Yahagi said the results of the Saudi Cup and the Dubai World Cup will help shape future plans for Forever Young. Yahagi said shipping from Japan to California – where the Breeders’’ Cup was held the last two years – is easier than shipping to Kentucky. However, he did not rule out a start in the BC Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland. “Still, we have the possibility of trying the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland,” Yahagi said. Book’em Danno, the Eclipse Award winning sprinter, was scheduled to return to trainer Derek Ryan’s barn at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday. Book’em Danno, who hasn’t raced since his Grade 1 victory in the Forego at Saratoga last Aug. 23 – his fourth win from five starts in 2025 – is targeting an April or May return at Keeneland or Churchill Downs. Unlike 2025, when Ryan decided to not point to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, he does hope to get Book’em Danno to the BC Sprint at Keeneland. “This year the plan is to get to the Breeders’ Cup,” Ryan said. “And then back to Saudi next year.” Ryan said he likely would run Book’em Danno in two of the three graded sprint stakes at Saratoga in 2026, not all three as he did in 2025. Shisospicy, who was voted female sprint champion by virtue of her beating the boys in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, is being pointed to the 1351 Turf Sprint in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 14, trainer Jose D’Angelo said. Rich Mendez, of Morplay Racing, which owns Shisospicy, gave one of the more heartfelt acceptance speeches of the evening when he said, “I came from absolutely nothing. . . . This goes to any young person that has dreams. I am that dream. Anyone can make it. You work really, really hard, stay focused you can make it.” Nitrogen, the 3-year-old filly champion trained by Mark Casse, is expected to be the first Eclipse winner to make it back to the races as she is being pointed to the Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 7. Jon Green, who along with his father, Len, race as D. J. Stable and own Nitrogen, said the filly could run in three races at Oaklawn this spring, including the Azeri and Apple Blossom. Notable Speech, who gave Godolphin its fourth champion male turf horse in the last five years, is expected to race in 2026 as a 5-year-old. Notable Speech, trained by Charlie Appleby, won the Woodbine Mile and Breeders’ Cup Mile in his lone two starts in North America. It is unclear where his 2026 campaign will begin. She Feels Pretty, who won two Grade 1 stakes in 2025 and was narrowly beaten in two others, won the Eclipse Award as champion female turf horse. Cherie DeVaux, who trains She Feels Pretty for Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stable, said the mare is under tack in Ocala but no timeline has yet been set for her return to the races. Ted Noffey went 4 for 4 with three Grade 1 victories en route to being crowned 2-year-old male champion. He is being pointed to the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream on Feb. 28 for his 3-year-old debut. On Friday, he had his second work of the year, going a half-mile in 50.81 seconds at Palm Beach Downs. “I think he’s where we would hope he would be at this stage,” said Todd Pletcher, who trains Ted Noffey for Spendthrift Farm. “First two works back he’s handled very easily. His fitness level is very good for where we are.” Super Corredora, the champion 2-year-old filly following her victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, has been training steadily at Santa Anita and is slated to make her seasonal debut in the $100,000 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita on Feb. 8. Cool Jet, the champion steeplechase horse, is pointing to a 2026 campaign at the age of 10, according to Sean Clancy, the writer/publisher whose Riverdee Stable owns the now 10-year-old gelding. While he was not the regular rider of any of the champion horses, jockey Flavien Prat won his second consecutive Eclipse Award as champion jockey. Prat beat out Irad Ortiz Jr. by a surprisingly large margin of 152-52 in the voting. Pietro Moran won the Eclipse Award as champion apprentice jockey, beating out Yedsit Hazlewood and Chris Elliott. In addition to the awards presented in 11 equine and five human categories, Bob Duncan, a former starter with the New York Racing Association, and longtime West Coast track announcer Trevor Denman received Special Eclipse Awards for Career Excellence. Racing historian and journalist Ed Bowen was posthumously honored with the Eclipse Award of Merit. Dan Piazza, winner of the 2025 National Horseplayers Championship, was presented with the Eclipse Award as the 2025 Horseplayer of the Year. Also recognized at Thursday’s ceremony were winners of the media Eclipse Awards – Jay Privman/Daily Racing Form (writing, feature-commentary); Natalie Voss/Paulick Report (writing, news-enterprise); Skip Dickstein/Albany Times-Union and BloodHorse (photography); Fox Sports (live television programming); Fox Sports (feature-television) and August Chapman and Stephen Dubner/Freakonomics Radio (multimedia). :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? 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