Midnight Bisou was a $19,000 buyback by breeder Woodford Thoroughbreds when she appeared at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale. Jeff Bloom then purchased her for a bargain $80,000 after she breezed a furlong in a relatively ordinary 10 1/5 seconds at the 2018 OBS spring sale of 2-year-olds in training.

As 2018 dawned, McKinzie was the best 3-year-old in trainer Bob Baffert’s barn, and as the year ended, he had reclaimed that spot. The middle of the year . . .

Well, McKinzie went to the sidelines with a minor injury, and a horse named Justify came along as a more-than-worthy replacement. But McKinzie came roaring back, winning a pair of Grade 1 races in the final 3 1/2 months of the year to end up a finalist in this division.

Accelerate made his first start of 2018 exactly 15 days before Justify ever raced, and his campaign continued for nearly five months after Justify made his last start. They could not have had more contrasting schedules, and though they never faced one another on the track, their accomplishments have set the stage for a battle at the ballot box for Horse of the Year.

Those who were paying attention to the waning days of 2017 were treated to the sight of a colt named City of Light making his stakes debut in a Grade 1 event and running away with the seven-furlong Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita Park.

The calendar page turned, and City of Light was asked by trainer Michael McCarthy to grow up fast. To begin his 2018 campaign, the son of Quality Road answered with resounding back-to-back wins in the Grade 1 Triple Bend on March 10 and then an upset of Santa Anita Handicap winner Accelerate in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 14.

On the first edition of last year’s Top Thoroughbred Poll sponsored by the NTRA, published Jan. 29, 2018, a total of 49 different horses received at least one vote of support from the 38 racing experts who submitted opinions.

Accelerate was not among the 49.

The setbacks that sidelined Sistercharlie in 2017 and 2018 gave owner Peter Brant a profound sense of appreciation moments after the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.

Sistercharlie won her third consecutive Grade 1 race in the BC Filly and Mare Turf, holding off by a neck a sustained threat from Wild Illusion in the richest turf race for females in the United States. As a result of that victory and her exceptional campaign, Sistercharlie is among the finalists for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2018.

What Enable accomplished in a brief three-race campaign in 2018 made her one of the most celebrated racehorses in the world. What Enable did at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, in the last of those races, gave her a unique place in American racing history.

Enable won the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf, the nation’s richest grass race, a month after winning the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris. Enable became the first horse to win both races in the same year since the BC Turf was launched in 1984. Seven horses had tried before Enable.

No one could beat A Raving Beauty in Grade 1 races at a mile on turf in 2018.

Twice, A Raving Beauty started at a mile, and both times she prevailed in prestigious races for fillies and mares on grass – the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes on June 9 at Belmont Park and the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes on Oct. 6 at Keeneland.

If there were an Eclipse Award category for turf sprinters, voters would not have had to look beyond Stormy Liberal, who scored a repeat victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Instead, Stormy Liberal is an Eclipse Award finalist in both the male sprint and male turf divisions.

While it is rare for a turf sprinter to be recognized as an Eclipse finalist in the male sprint division and unprecedented in the male turf category, the four-race win streak Stormy Liberal put together to end his season put him over the top.

Glorious Empire went from claiming horse in June to Eclipse Award finalist in January. That’s a road rarely traveled, yet only the latest leg in a long, winding journey.

From England to Hong Kong, back to England and on to America, Glorious Empire’s career has spanned the globe. He has struggled with exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (bleeding), but under the care of trainer James L. “Chuck” Lawrence II, Glorious Empire somehow rose to the top of the East Coast turf-route division during 2018.