Straight No Chaser made the most of limited opportunities during his 2024 campaign and for his season of excellence is an Eclipse Award finalist for both champion male sprinter and outstanding older dirt male.
Straight No Chaser won 2 of 3 starts in 2024 for earnings of $1,170,500. His campaign began May 11 at Aqueduct with a troubled fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Runhappy.
Few fillies and mares in 2024 were better than late-runner Raging Sea, a four-time graded stakes winner whose only losses from six starts were slow-pace Grade 1s that negated her closing kick.
Raging Sea was not perfect, but close to it. With four graded stakes victories, she is a worthy Eclipse Award finalist as outstanding older dirt female.
Adare Manor ended the year in the same position she started – as the top older female in California. Adare Manor raced four times in 2024, won three stakes including a pair of Grade 1s, and showed up every start.
Although her campaign was shorter than planned, Adare Manor packed plenty into her handful of starts. From spring through summer, few were better than the strapping 5-year-old who is an Eclipse Award finalist as outstanding older filly or mare.
Idiomatic entered 2024 with high expectations following an eight-win championship campaign in 2023 that included the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff and Eclipse Award as outstanding older female. For a second straight year, Idiomatic is an Eclipse finalist in the same category.
The 2023 season was always going to be a tough act to follow for Idiomatic, a Curlin filly owned and bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte Farms. After she won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Idiomatic was given a comprehensive evaluation before the decision was made to race her as a 5-year-old in 2024.
Under the stewardship of Brad Kelley, historic Calumet Farm perennially ranks among the nation’s leading breeders by earnings. That was again the case in 2024, with horses bred by the farm amassing enough for a second-place finish to Godolphin on the earnings leaderboard and tying for third by North American graded stakes wins. Calumet, which races some of its own homebreds, also was the nation’s sixth-leading owner by earnings. Those statistics caught the eye of voters to again earn an Eclipse Award finalist nod among the nation’s outstanding breeders.
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s international Godolphin operation is yet again a finalist for both the Eclipse Award for outstanding owner and outstanding breeder, looking to sweep both categories for the fourth year in a row.
Godolphin or its Darley banner – the brand that it stands its stallions under – has won or tied for the outstanding owner award seven times overall – in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 – and has been honored as outstanding breeder four times – in 2012, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Sataves, the dam of Horse of the Year candidate Thorpedo Anna, had a premature and troubled start to life, requiring painstaking care. Her survival and subsequent success as a broodmare was largely due to hands-on care by Judy Hicks. The breeder of Thorpedo Anna is an Eclipse Award finalist herself, recognized among the nation’s outstanding breeders.
J.G. Torrealba is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2024 after building his résumé by winning races from Maryland to Ohio to Southern California.
The 23-year-old native of Venezuela had particular success in the stakes program at Laurel Park. His victories aboard horses like Copper Tax and Malibu Beauty helped him compile $3,766,272 in mount earnings to rank second in that category among all apprentice jockeys in North America.
Gabriel Maldonado is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2024 for a season in which he ranked second in wins among all his peers in North America.
Maldonado won 120 races from 579 starters last year. His mounts earned $2,625,880, which ranked fourth among all apprentice jockeys in North America.
