Apprentice jockey Reylu Gutierrez took a somewhat unconventional path to the starting gate despite the fact that he is a son of a trainer. Gutierrez secured a college degree before he pursued a career in the saddle.
The approach proved effective.
Gutierrez is a finalist for the Eclipse Award for outstanding apprentice of 2018 after a year in which he won 109 races and had mount earnings of $3,360,314. His wins and earnings ranked second among all apprentices in 2018.
Justify’s bandwagon simply kept growing as the colt streaked in his meteoric fashion toward the Triple Crown. On the ownership line in the program on Belmont Stakes Day, that bandwagon was driven, in alphabetical order, by China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners LLC, Starlight Racing, and WinStar Farm.
Brothers Kosta and Pete Hronis jumped into Thoroughbred ownership in 2010 and have swiftly found success at the top levels of the game. Their multiple Grade 1 winner Accelerate is in line to be the outfit’s second divisional Eclipse Award champion, joining 2015 champion 3-year-old filly Stellar Wind.
Niggling notions and faint fears had impeded the translation of Expert Eye’s talent to production out on the racetrack. The starting gate, for instance, set his brain buzzing, sapping energy, severing the focus required to win the very best races.
Finally, during the second part of 2018, Expert Eye got his act together. He flirted with long-awaited top-level success and, after traveling from England, finally found it, winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs. His Breeders’ Cup Mile triumph has made him a finalist for an Eclipse Award as champion turf male.
Peter M. Brant has used his eye for bloodstock to build a powerhouse stable via strategic private purchases of diverse foreign runners and via high-end auction moves. His investments paid off in 2018. Brant’s runners earned nine graded stakes victories on the season, second only to Hronis Racing, whose Accelerate accounted for six of its 10 wins. And that’s not even counting the graded runners Brant campaigned in partnership.
Kenny and Lisa Troutt’s WinStar Farm, which won Eclipse Awards for outstanding owner in 2010 and standout breeder in 2016, led all North American breeders by earnings in 2018. WinStar is a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding breeder for 2018.
Glennwood Farm, operated by John D. Gunther and his daughter Tanya Gunther, reached the pinnacle of Thoroughbred racing when its fields produced unbeaten Triple Crown winner Justify. The Scat Daddy colt, whom Gunther sold for $500,000 as a Keeneland September yearling, also is out of a Glennwood homebred, the Grade 3-placed Ghostzapper mare Stage Magic.
Mike Abraham’s diverse equine interests as a breeder in 2018 were led by Accelerate, who won five Grade 1 races, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic, to make himself a finalist for Horse of the Year and outstanding older dirt male.
Abraham has owned a farm in his native New Mexico since the early 1980s, and splits his Thoroughbred broodmare band between there and Jacob Nance’s I.R. Bloodstock at Dearborn Farm in Kentucky. He also maintains a large Quarter Horse operation in New Mexico.
Monomoy Girl was fairly unstoppable in 2018, with the only one who was able to defeat her being . . . herself.
The filly won 6 of 7 starts in 2018, with the only blip on her record a disqualification that cost her a perfect season. Monomoy Girl holds signature triumphs in the Kentucky Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff and is now an Eclipse Award finalist as leading 3-year-old filly.
“She is a special filly, one of a kind, an unbelievable filly,” trainer Brad Cox said.
