PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Sovereignty, who in 2025 won the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, and Travers as part of a 5-for-6 campaign, was voted Horse of the Year, capping another big night at the Eclipse Awards for Godolphin, the global racing and breeding operation headed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Sovereignty, who came within one vote of being a unanimous choice for champion 3-year-old male, beat out the Japanese 4-year-old Forever Young and the three-time Grade 1-winning 3-year-old Journalism to earn Horse of the Year honors, becoming the first 3-year-old male to win the award since Authentic in 2020. Sovereignty received 201 votes, compared to 17 for Forever Young and 2 for Ted Noffey. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. In addition to Sovereignty’s two Eclipse Awards, Godolphin won its sixth straight Eclipse for leading owner and its fifth straight as leading breeder. The Godolphin-owned and bred Notable Speech won the Eclipse for male turf champion. Bill Mott, the trainer of Sovereignty, won the his fifth Eclipse Award. The announcement of Sovereignty as Horse of the Year came at the end of the 55th Eclipse Awards ceremony held Thursday night at The Breakers, a resort in Palm Beach, Fla., during which champions were crowned in 11 equine and five human divisions. Finalists for the awards were announced on Jan. 4 after votes were cast by eligible voters from Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which consists of racing officials and Equibase field personnel. Of the 240 ballots sent out to eligible voters, 220 ballots, or 92 percent, were returned. Voters selected three horses or individuals in each category and finalists were determined based on points accrued on a 10-5-1 basis. Winners, however, were determined solely on first-place votes. Sovereignty received all but one first-place vote for 3-year-old champion male. The other vote was an abstention. Sovereignty began his 3-year-old season with a victory in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park. A month later, he suffered what would turn out to be his lone defeat of the year, a 1 1/4-length loss to Tappan Street, in the Florida Derby. In the Kentucky Derby, run over a sloppy track and despite clipping heels soon after the start under Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty went on to win the Kentucky Derby by 1 1/2 lengths over Journalism. Three days after the Kentucky Derby, Godolphin and Mott announced their somewhat controversial decision to skip the Preakness Stakes with Sovereignty and point for the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. Sovereignty won the Belmont, again beating Journalism, who three weeks earlier won the Preakness in dramatic fashion. Mott had long wanted to win the Travers Stakes, a race that had previously eluded him in his Hall of Fame career. After he won the Jim Dandy by one length over Baeza, Sovereignty delivered Mott his Travers with a powerful 10-length victory. Mott then set his sights on the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, but one day after entries were taken for the race, Sovereignty was diagnosed with a fever, and the day after that he was officially withdrawn from the race. In late December, Godolphin announced Sovereignty would return for a 4-year-old season and he has been galloping the past few weeks at Payson Park in South Florida. There is no specific first race picked out for Sovereignty’s 4-year-old debut, though the ultimate goal is the Breeders’ Cup Classic, to be run at Keeneland on Oct. 31. Forever Young made just one start in North America in 2025, but it was a victory in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he beat 2024 Classic winner Sierra Leone. That victory was enough to earn Forever Young the Eclipse Award as champion older dirt male with 117 votes. Forever Young is owned by Fujita Susumu and trained by Yoshito Yahagi. Sierra Leone finished second with 50 first-place votes followed by Nysos (24). Mindframe, the only two-time Grade 1 winner who defeated Sierra Leone in the Stephen Foster and Nysos in the Churchill Downs, received nine first-place votes. Others earning first-place votes in that category were Fierceness (6),  Book’em Danno (1), and Touchuponastar (1). There were two abstentions. Thorpedo Anna, the 2024 Horse of the Year and 3-year-old filly champion, easily won the Eclipse Award for older dirt female with 171 votes. Scylla, the BC Distaff winner, finished second with 33 followed by Splendora (9). Thorpedo Anna is owned by Brookdale Racing, Magdalena Racing, Judy Hicks, and Hill n’ Dale Equine Holdings and trained by Kenny McPeek. Book’em Danno, a three-time graded stakes winner, was voted champion sprinter by a count of 115-82 over BC Sprint winner Bentornato. Book’em Danno is owned by Atlantic Six Racing and trained by Derek Ryan. Shisospicy, who beat males in the BC Turf Sprint, was voted champion female sprinter by a vote of 113-68 over Splendora, the BC Filly and Mare Sprint winner.  Kopion received 34 votes. Shisospicy, a finalist in three categories, is owned by Morplay Racing and Qatar Racing and trained by Jose D’Angelo. Notable Speech gave Godolphin its fourth male turf champion in the last five years. He beat out 2024 male turf champion Rebel’s Romance (115-59) in a category in which nine horses received at least one first-place vote. She Feels Pretty, a two-time Grade 1 winner in 2025, was voted female turf champion, giving trainer Cherie DeVaux her first Eclipse winner. She Feels Pretty, owned by Lael Stables, finished second to Gezora in the BC Filly and Mare Turf, but outpaced Gezora in the Eclipse voting 151-36. Shisospicy was third with 22 votes. Nitrogen, a multiple graded stakes winner on two surfaces for D. J. Stable and trainer Mark Casse, was voted champion 3-year-old filly by a vote of 183-24 over Shisospicy. Gezora was third with 5 votes. Ted Noffey, the undefeated three-time Grade 1 winner for Spendthrift Farm and trainer Todd Pletcher, was voted 2-year-old male champion with 218 votes. BC Juvenile Turf winner Gstaad and Kentucky Jockey Club winner Further Ado each received one vote. Super Corredora, the BC Juvenile Fillies winner trained by John Sadler for Spartan Equine Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds, was voted champion 2-year-old filly 146-49 over BC Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Cy Fair. Cool Jet, a three-time graded stakes winner for Riverdee Stable and trainer Jack Fisher, was voted champion Steeplechase horse 119-51 over Zanahiyr. Swore was third with 14 votes. Mott won the Eclipse for champion trainer by a vote 85-50 over Brad Cox, who led all trainers in purse-money won and stakes wins. Chad Brown was third with 40 first-place votes. Also receiving first-place votes were Pletcher (21), Bob Baffert (13), Steve Asmussen (3), Jamie Ness (2), Mark Casse (1), Christophe Clement (1), Mike Maker (1), Brendan Walsh (1), and Henry Walters (1). Flavien Prat won his second straight Eclipse Award as champion jockey by a somewhat surprising margin of 152-52 over Irad Ortiz Jr. Ortiz led all riders in wins and narrowly beat out Prat for purse-money won, but Prat won the most graded stakes and overall stakes. John Velazquez (6), Junior Alvarado (5),  Jose Ortiz (3), Kendrick Carmouche (1), and Tyler Gaffalione (1) also received votes. Pietro Moran was voted champion apprentice jockey by a vote of 126-55 over Yedsit Hazelwood. Chris Elliott was third with 26 votes. In addition to the awards presented in 11 equine and six 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-televsion) and August Chapman and Stephen Dubner/Freakonomics Radio (multimedia). A previous version of this article misstated the third first-place vote-getter in the Horse of the Year category. It was Ted Noffey, not Journalism. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.