Having horses for major Saturday races at, say, Saratoga, gives a trainer a chance to win an Eclipse Award. Having horses for minor weekday races in Oklahoma, in Arkansas and Kentucky, in Texas and Indiana, can get a trainer 422 wins in a season. One trainer – and only one trainer – in North America plays both games.
That person is Steve Asmussen, and Asmussen, winning races from the bottom of the class ladder to the very top rung, is an Eclipse Award finalist for 2020.
A scroll through the social-media posts by apprentice jockey Yarmarie L. Correa features win picture after win picture after win picture.
The rookie rider collected 117 of them last year to lead all apprentice jockeys by wins in North America. She had 701 mounts, and they earned a cumulative $1,751,390. Correa also won the riding title at Thistledown.
For her impressive first season on the track, Correa is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2020.
Historic Calumet Farm is seeking just its second title in the modern Eclipse Awards era, which began in 1971, and its first under the stewardship of Brad Kelley.
Calumet, founded in 1924 by William Wright, campaigned a slew of champions through its history, including Triple Crown winners Whirlaway (1941) and Citation (1948). The farm’s lone Eclipse title as outstanding breeder came in 1990, the year it campaigned Horse of the Year Criminal Type. Kelley assumed the helm of Calumet in 2012. Just one year later, he sent out 2013 Preakness Stakes winner Oxbow.
B. Wayne Hughes purchased the historic Spendthrift Farm property in 2004 and started off with one stallion. Hughes, 87, has now written his own chapters of history and innovation at Spendthrift, which will stand 23 stallions in Kentucky in 2021, including the nation’s record-setting leading sire, Into Mischief, and his son Authentic, winner of the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve and the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic. Spendthrift also is involved in regional stallions and has expanded to an Australian division.
Seth Klarman formed Klaravich Stables in 1993 with a friend, Jeff Ravich, and they raced in partnership for about a decade until Ravich left to start his own stable on the West Coast. Klarman, 63, later partnered with William Lawrence, with whom he campaigned 2019 Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar, earning the duo an ownership Eclipse Award.
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s international Godolphin operation had another strong year and is a finalist for another Eclipse Award for outstanding owner, further cementing its position as one of the elite outfits of the modern era. The operation won the Eclipse for outstanding breeder in 2012 under its Darley name, under which it has bred and stood stallions in various jurisdictions worldwide. Darley also tied with Lael Stable for outstanding owner of 2006, and Godolphin was honored in that category in 2009 and 2012.
Snap Decision had won 2 of 18 starts by the time he left trainer Shug McGaughey’s stable in late 2018. Over the next two years, Snap Decision had a career turnaround, developing into an outstanding jumper.
After finishing second in his first two starts over hurdles in maiden races in spring 2019, Snap Decision has reeled off seven consecutive wins, including five stakes. In 2020, Snap Decision was unbeaten in three stakes, gaining a spot among the finalists for the Eclipse Award as the year’s outstanding steeplechaser.
When his mood is right, Rashaan can be a brilliant racehorse. Working with the veteran Irish-bred gelding to coax such performances can be a test for the people around him.
Trainer Leslie Young said Rashaan can “overthink” racing. Jockey Thomas Garner, who doubles as Rashaan’s exercise rider, said there are mornings Rashaan does not want to participate in any activity.
The delayed American steeplechase season of 2020 finally began a few months late in June with a familiar name in the winner’s circle of a famous race.
Moscato won the Grade 3 Temple Gwathmey Hurdle at Middleburg Racecourse in Virginia on June 13 for the second consecutive year. The race is typically run earlier in the spring, but the coronavirus forced a postponement. The Middleburg race had its centennial running in 2020, but without spectators.
Rushing Fall was so consistent throughout her career that it seemed strange when she was beaten.
In 2020, Rushing Fall was nearly perfect, winning three consecutive stakes from early June to late August before finishing a game second by a neck to the Irish filly Audarya in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 7 at Keeneland. The Filly and Mare Turf was Rushing Fall’s final start.
