When the National Steeplechase Association released its pre-season rankings of horses in training for 2016 last February, Top Striker wasn’t among the top half-dozen prospects. That’s understandable, considering Top Striker missed the entire 2015 season and hadn’t won a jump race since taking a stakes for novices in November 2014.

For much of his career, both in Europe and the United States, Scorpiancer has been an underachiever.

He went through the sales ring three times, the last when he sold for $309,000 at the Brightwells Cheltenham Sale in March 2014. He subsequently went just 1 for 5, his lone victory a maiden hurdle against weak competition during the winter meet at Ludlow Racecourse in England.

B. Wayne Hughes’ Spendthrift Farm took quality over quantity to its extremes on the racetrack in 2016, taking home seven graded stakes wins in just 35 non-partnership starts.

Those seven wins accounted for half of the Lexington, Ky.-based operation’s 14 victories, with total earnings of $2,644,672. Spendthrift’s five Grade 1 wins were the most of any North American owner in 2016.

Just call him Mr. Breeders’ Cup.

No rider in history has won more championship races than Mike Smith, and in 2016 the jockey added to his lore when he snagged three Breeders’ Cup events, led by the $6 million Classic with Arrogate.

But the splash Smith made at Breeders’ Cup was just one aspect of his memorable year. He was aboard Arrogate for his track-record performance in the Travers, and he also teamed regularly with Songbird, who won seven of eight starts in 2016 including the Alabama and Santa Anita Oaks.

Jockey Jose Ortiz had a whirlwind year in 2016. He led all North American-based jockeys in wins with 351. He won his first Breeders’ Cup race, aboard Oscar Performance. And, she said, “Yes!”

Ortiz became engaged to fellow rider Taylor Rice in June and the couple was married in December.

Ortiz, a 23-year-old native of Puerto Rico, is based in New York. For his breakout year on the track, he is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding jockey of 2016.

Javier Castellano is bidding for a fourth consecutive Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey after leading all North American-based riders in both mount earnings and graded stakes wins in 2016. Castellano’s year included a Longines Kentucky Oaks victory with Cathryn Sophia, a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf win with New Money Honey, and a standout turf mount in Flintshire.

Arrogate and California Chrome battled it out in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and are the leading contenders for Horse of the Year after they were named as two of the three finalists for the year’s top honor – along with the 3-year-old filly Songbird – when the three finalists in each of 11 equine and six human Eclipse Award categories were announced on Thursday.

Tod Marks, a freelance photographer who specializes in racing, has been named the 2016 Eclipse Award winner for Photography for a picture of the stretch run of a hurdle race at the Iroquois Steeplechase meet on May 14 in Nashville, Tenn., the administrators of the awards announced late on Wednesday.

Marks, who resides in Yonkers, N.Y., is the primary photographer for the National Steeplechase Association and contributes photos to a variety of publications. The winning photograph appeared in the July/August issue of The Chronicle of the Horse Untacked.

Daily Racing Form has been named the winner of a 2016 Media Eclipse Award for Audio/Multi-Media and Internet for a piece appearing on its website profiling the longevity of three Hall of Fame riders, the administrators of the awards announced on Tuesday.

The piece, called “Time Bandits,” was written by Jay Hovdey, DRF’s executive columnist who has won four previous Eclipse Awards for writing. Barbara Livingston, DRF’s staff photographer who has won three photography Eclipses, provided pictures, while Molly McGill, a free-lance videographer, produced video elements.

When it came to the annual Eclipse Award for outstanding owner, there once were some creative choices. Juddmonte Farms won in 1992 with a small, select group of North American stakes runners before anyone over here could put Prince Khalid’s face to his stable’s name. Bert and Diana Firestone were honored in 1980 when their Genuine Risk became the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby in 65 years. And in 1990, Frances Genter won because her colt Unbridled won the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and because she was Frances Genter.