PALM BEACH, Fla. - Cody’s Wish, whose bond with a young man stricken with a rare genetic disorder became a feel-good story for horse racing the last two years, was honored for his on-track achievement in 2023 by being named Horse of the Year, it was announced Thursday at a black-tie ceremony held at The Breakers resort.

Cody’s Wish received 134 of the 219 ballots cast, outdistancing fellow finalists White Abarrio (37) and Idiomatic (21). Also receiving votes were Up to the Mark  (9), Arcangelo (6), Auguste Rodin  (6), Elite Power (4), and Practical Move (1).

View the 2023 Eclipse Awards finalists PPs here. 

Jay Privman, the national correspondent for Daily Racing Form for nearly 25 years prior to his retirement last fall, will receive a Special Eclipse Award for Career Excellence when the awards are handed out on Jan. 26, the administrators of the awards announced on Thursday.

For all her lofty accomplishments against fillies and mares in her career, two races against males in the autumn of 2022 have largely defined the career of War Like Goddess.

A four-time stakes winner in 2021, War Like Goddess was a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female that year. She is back in the same position for the 2022 season for her successful five-race campaign in Kentucky and New York, a season filled with a dramatic losses and electrifying wins.

Malathaat had a tough act to follow when she began her 4-year-old campaign in spring 2022. After all, the previous season she won three Grade 1s and an Eclipse Award as outstanding 3-year-old filly. Turns out the sequel was even better than the original.

Racing six times in 2022, Malathaat ran faster than the year before, faced better company, won more often, and capped her exceptional career with a thrilling photo-finish victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland. All of which makes Malathaat, by Curlin, an Eclipse Award finalist as outstanding older dirt female of 2022.

In an era where Grade 1-level horses make only a handful of starts, Olympiad was a bit of a throwback.

In 2022, Olympiad ran eight times, winning six races, including five graded stakes, to earn a spot as a finalist for an Eclipse Award in the older dirt male division. One of his two losses came in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he finished second to the undefeated Flightline.

In a Hall of Fame career that has spanned 26 years, trainer Todd Pletcher has conditioned 12 champions, two Kentucky Derby winners, and four Belmont Stakes winners.

While Life Is Good doesn’t fall into any of those categories, Pletcher still calls him, “As good a horse as we’ve ever had.”

In 2022, Life Is Good was about as good a horse as anybody trained, winning three Grade 1 stakes – the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, Whitney, and Woodward – as part of a 4-for-6 campaign that resulted in him being named a finalist for an Eclipse Award in the older dirt male division.

When the search for superlatives to describe what Flightline accomplished in 2022 ends, there will be one moniker left to hang on the unbeaten colt.

Champion.

Oddly enough, two of the more memorable performances by Nest in 2022 came in successive races in which she finished second. A tough trip cost her in the Kentucky Oaks, and the Belmont Stakes runner-up finish against boys reinvigorated her.

Before, after, and including second-place finishes in the Oaks and Belmont, Nest compiled an exceptional campaign. She won five races, including three Grade 1s, to emerge as a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding 3-year-old filly of 2022.