Essential Quality is seeking to become only the third 2-year-old male champion to repeat at 3 since 1979, when Spectacular Bid completed a streak of three straight that included Triple Crown winners Affirmed and Seattle Slew.

In the more than four decades since, as horses have raced fewer times and become more specialized, rare is the male horse who can lead his brethren at 2 and then move on to be the best the following year, when the demands include the Triple Crown races and potential starts in the fall against elders.

Shadwell Stables had a memorable season, both in the United States and in Europe, following the death of its founder, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, last March. Leading the way in the United States was Kentucky Oaks heroine Malathaat, who consistently turned in memorable performances throughout the season.

Malathaat, bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Farm, is by Curlin and out of Stonestreet’s Grade 1 winner Dreaming of Julia. That regal pedigree turned several heads at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale, including that of Todd Pletcher, who had trained her dam.

Amid the chaos that was the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar, Modern Games delivered a performance that afternoon worthy of being named a finalist for the Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding 2-year-old.

Ahead of the 2021 Eclipse Awards, it was widely felt that Pizza Bianca was very unlikely to be voted the honor of outstanding 2-year-old filly in light of what Echo Zulu accomplished in four starts on dirt.

Knowing, however, that comparison is the thief of joy, the Eclipse results should not be allowed to diminish the joyful scene that unfolded at Del Mar when Pizza Bianca won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 5 in dramatic fashion.

Brad Cox was hoping history would repeat itself when he brought Juju’s Map to California for the Breeders’ Cup.

It was in 2019 that Cox brought British Idiom, the winner of the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades, to clinch a divisional Eclipse Award by capturing the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita. So when Juju’s Map won the 2021 Alcibiades at Keeneland, hope was alive for another divisional Eclipse.

They say nobody’s perfect, but maybe they hadn’t seen Echo Zulu yet. The bay filly was untouchable in 2021, dominating all four of her races in a season of true perfection.

Trained by Steve Asmussen, Echo Zulu capped off a brilliant 2-year-old campaign with a 5 1/4-length victory in the Nov. 5 Net Jets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar. It was a signature triumph that has made her an overwhelming favorite to be voted the Eclipse Award in this division.

Authentic became the fourth horse in the last seven years to win both Horse of the Year and the 3-year-old male title, the highlight of the 50th annual Eclipse Awards, which were announced Thursday night.

Authentic is favored to be named Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male, and his connections – trainer Bob Baffert, jockey John Velazquez, breeder Peter Blum, and an ownership group headed by Spendthrift Farm – all are finalists in their respective categories for the 50th annual Eclipse Awards, to be announced Thursday night in an unusual presentation that serves as an appropriate coda to an unusual year.

Authentic, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic, the top older horse Improbable, and the top older mare Monomoy Girl are the finalists for the 2020 Horse of the Year, it was announced Saturday by the three organizations which vote for the Eclipse Awards, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form, and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.

The first-ever internationally based winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint was a 4-year-old filly whose name and prior record evoked images of Cinderella. The victory was sufficiently impressive to land her among the Eclipse Awards finalists in the female sprinter category.