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.

In the span of just 15 autumn days, Shamrock Rose went from an unknown to a major contender in the filly-mare sprint division, as back-to-back victories at long odds in the Grade 2 Raven Run and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint catapulted the 3-year-old filly into contention for divisional supremacy.

The year unfolded in relative obscurity for Shamrock Rose. Fourth in the Busher and second in the Cicada, both in March at Aqueduct, the bay filly could only muster a third-place finish in the Weber City Miss at Laurel Park in April.

After Marley’s Freedom finished a non-threatening sixth in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie on the Pegasus World Cup card in January in her first start as a 4-year-old, few could have guessed the filly would blossom into a major player in the filly-mare sprint division.

Trained at the time by Bob Hess Jr., Marley’s Freedom then finished second in March in the Grade 2 Santa Monica at her home track, Santa Anita, before powering to victory in a second-level allowance in April.

Although her final two races were disappointing, there’s no question that 2018 and her entire three-year career were an unqualified success for Finley’sluckycharm, who is among the three finalists for the Eclipse Award as champion female sprinter for 2018.

If Roy H is named champion male sprinter for the second year in a row, he will become only the second horse to top the division twice since the Eclipse Awards were established in 1971. Housebuster was voted North America’s best sprinter in 1990 and 1991.

Just as in 2017, Roy H concluded his season by winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He seized control of the Churchill Downs race in upper stretch and quickly opened up, cruising home comfortably to score by 3 1/4 lengths while giving rider Paco Lopez his first Breeders’ Cup victory.

Given that the last six – and seven of the last eight –winners of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf have been finalists for the champion 2-year-old filly Eclipse Award, one can say with certainty that the Eclipse electorate respects winners of the race.

To a point, that is.

Jaywalk was a very nice filly out of the box. She finished second in her June debut at Monmouth Park after setting the early pace, came back to record a front-running romp in her second start, which came in the mud at Parx Racing in July, and then became the first stakes winner for her freshman sire Cross Traffic when she landed the White Clay Creek Stakes at Delaware Park in August, showing an added dimension by coming from off the pace.

Nice filly, for sure.