As a $40,000 yearling purchase, British Idiom was eligible for a restricted maiden race at Saratoga last summer. Hardly anyone could have foretold that winning that six-furlong debut would propel her to back-to-back Grade 1 victories and a most likely divisional championship in just two more starts.
Indeed, trainer Brad Cox was among those pleasantly surprised and elated with the rapid progress made afterward by the modestly bred filly.
“Every time we asked her to step up, she did,” said Cox.
It’s not often you see a horse whose three career victories all came in Grade 1 races.
But that’s the remarkable 2019 record compiled as a 2-year-old by Bast, a handy bay filly who capped her season by giving her Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert, his sixth victory in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes.
Kazushi Kimura led all North American-based apprentice jockeys in mount earnings in 2019 and for his memorable season is an Eclipse Award finalist. He won 117 races and reached $3.7 million in mount earnings from Jan. 1 through the final date of his apprentice allowance, Oct. 26.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s international Godolphin operation had another powerhouse year and is a finalist for another Eclipse Award, further cementing its position as one of the elite outfits of the modern era. The operation won the Eclipse for outstanding breeder in 2012 under its Darley name. Darley also tied with Lael Stable for outstanding owner of 2006, and Godolphin was honored in that category in 2009 and 2012.
George Strawbridge Jr., 82, is seeking his first Eclipse Award as outstanding breeder, and has a strong case thanks to breeding Bricks and Mortar, a five-time Grade 1 winner who is one of the finalists for Horse of the Year and a heavy favorite to be honored as champion turf male. The Giant’s Causeway horse, sold as a yearling to Klaravich Stable and William Lawrence, is out of Beyond the Waves, a French stakes winner whom Strawbridge co-bred and campaigned.
Got Stormy has seemingly never met a turf course she did not like.
A 4-year-old filly in 2019, Got Stormy won half of her eight starts through the year, with the victories coming from coast to coast. In the races she did not win, Got Stormy was second or third on four different courses.
Her consistency has made her a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2019.
:: Full list of 2019 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories
Not many horses win six races in their careers, let alone six stakes.
What Sistercharlie achieved in the last half of 2018 and through the summer and early fall of 2019 was exceptional – six consecutive Grade 1 stakes wins for fillies and mares on turf.
Sistercharlie was beaten in her final start of 2019, a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 2. For her three Grade 1 wins earlier in the year, Sistercharlie has been recognized as a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2019.
A month before the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, the partnership that owns Uni spent $100,000 for a supplemental nomination to the famous race.
The hefty fee turned out to be a heckuva 10-1 bet. For her win in the BC Mile, Uni earned $1.1 million.
Uni ran arguably the best race of her remarkable career to win the BC Mile against a field largely consisting of males. The victory secured her place among the finalists for the Eclipse Award for the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2019.
Midnight Bisou’s 2019 campaign of sustained excellence stretched from late January to early November, from coast to coast. She did not win them all, but she sure came close.
Midnight Bisou won seven of eight starts, finished second once, raced at six tracks in five states and emerged as more than just the leader of the filly and mare division. In fact, she emerged as one of the nation’s top horses regardless of gender, age, footing, or distance.
