Brilliant in his sprint debut in May, Forte proved he was not a flash in the pan, capturing three Grade 1 stakes through the summer and fall to become a finalist for the Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old male division.
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Tim Layden, an at-large writer for NBC Sports, has won his third Eclipse Award for an article he wrote last year that was named the winner for Feature/Commentary Writing, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced on Friday, along with the five other media Eclipse Awards.
Other Eclipse media winners included Tom Law, for News/Enterprise Writing; Wendy Wooley, for Photography; NBC Sports, for both Live Television Programming and Feature Television Programming; and Horse Racing Radio Network, for its coverage of the Breeders’ Cup.
Flightline saved the best for last in 2021.
He won the year’s penultimate Grade 1 with the year’s highest Beyer Speed Figure, earning a 118 in the Runhappy Malibu on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.
“For the third start of his career, this is pretty remarkable,” Andrew Beyer, who created Beyer Speed Figures, told Daily Racing Form.
Flightline remained unbeaten in three starts with the Malibu win, and his exciting form has made him a finalist for the Eclipse Award for champion sprinter of 2021.
It was a whirlwind campaign for Aloha West in 2021.
In just 10 short months, he made the leap from debut winner to Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding male sprinter on the strength of his dramatic win in the $2 million Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Aloha West was up for a nose victory in the Nov. 6 race at Del Mar. It was his first stakes win and after the race owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners were flanked in the winner’s circle by trainer Wayne Catalano and jockey Jose Ortiz.
Juddmonte Farms, and the international Thoroughbred bloodstock industry at large, experienced a monumental loss in early 2021 with the death of the farm’s founder Prince Khalid bin Abdullah at age 83. Juddmonte continued its high-end operations and honored the founder’s legacy by again finishing as one of the standout owners of 2021, thanks to its homebred program. Abdullah’s sons and grandsons have taken an interest in the Juddmonte program to continue its operations, while its affairs in the United States are managed by Garrett O’Rourke.
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s international Godolphin operation had another banner year and is looking to add more hardware to its already glittering trophy case. Godolphin is a finalist for 2021 Eclipse Awards as both outstanding owner and breeder.
The operation won Eclipse Awards as outstanding owner in 2009, 2012, and 2020. It also, under its Darley name, tied with Lael Stables in the voting for outstanding owner of 2006. Godolphin, as Darley, won the Eclipse for outstanding breeder in 2012.
The Mean Queen had a wicked race record in 2021.
In eight starts in Ireland and the United States, The Mean Queen won six times, including three consecutive Grade 1 races to finish a campaign that has landed her on the list of finalists for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding steeplechaser of 2021.
The Mean Queen was unbeatable when it counted the most in 2021, massive accomplishments for a then 4-year-old filly by Doyen who began the year in modest races.
In her first start of 2021, War Like Goddess finished a quiet fifth in her stakes debut in the Grade 3 The Very One Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 27. By the end of the year, the loss was a distant memory.
Through 2021, War Like Goddess won four consecutive graded stakes in Florida, Kentucky, and New York and ran arguably the best race of her career when third in a thrilling running of the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 6.