Malathaat had a tough act to follow when she began her 4-year-old campaign in spring 2022. After all, the previous season she won three Grade 1s and an Eclipse Award as outstanding 3-year-old filly. Turns out the sequel was even better than the original.

Racing six times in 2022, Malathaat ran faster than the year before, faced better company, won more often, and capped her exceptional career with a thrilling photo-finish victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland. All of which makes Malathaat, by Curlin, an Eclipse Award finalist as outstanding older dirt female of 2022.

In an era where Grade 1-level horses make only a handful of starts, Olympiad was a bit of a throwback.

In 2022, Olympiad ran eight times, winning six races, including five graded stakes, to earn a spot as a finalist for an Eclipse Award in the older dirt male division. One of his two losses came in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he finished second to the undefeated Flightline.

In a Hall of Fame career that has spanned 26 years, trainer Todd Pletcher has conditioned 12 champions, two Kentucky Derby winners, and four Belmont Stakes winners.

While Life Is Good doesn’t fall into any of those categories, Pletcher still calls him, “As good a horse as we’ve ever had.”

In 2022, Life Is Good was about as good a horse as anybody trained, winning three Grade 1 stakes – the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, Whitney, and Woodward – as part of a 4-for-6 campaign that resulted in him being named a finalist for an Eclipse Award in the older dirt male division.

When the search for superlatives to describe what Flightline accomplished in 2022 ends, there will be one moniker left to hang on the unbeaten colt.

Champion.

Oddly enough, two of the more memorable performances by Nest in 2022 came in successive races in which she finished second. A tough trip cost her in the Kentucky Oaks, and the Belmont Stakes runner-up finish against boys reinvigorated her.

Before, after, and including second-place finishes in the Oaks and Belmont, Nest compiled an exceptional campaign. She won five races, including three Grade 1s, to emerge as a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding 3-year-old filly of 2022.

Brilliant in his sprint debut in May, Forte proved he was not a flash in the pan, capturing three Grade 1 stakes through the summer and fall to become a finalist for the Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old male division.

Blessed with blazing speed and able to carry it around two turns, Cave Rock won two Grade 1 stakes and finished second in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to earn a spot as a finalist for the Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old male division.

Tim Layden, an at-large writer for NBC Sports, has won his third Eclipse Award for an article he wrote last year that was named the winner for Feature/Commentary Writing, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced on Friday, along with the five other media Eclipse Awards.

Other Eclipse media winners included Tom Law, for News/Enterprise Writing; Wendy Wooley, for Photography; NBC Sports, for both Live Television Programming and Feature Television Programming; and Horse Racing Radio Network, for its coverage of the Breeders’ Cup.

Flightline saved the best for last in 2021.

He won the year’s penultimate Grade 1 with the year’s highest Beyer Speed Figure, earning a 118 in the Runhappy Malibu on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.

“For the third start of his career, this is pretty remarkable,” Andrew Beyer, who created Beyer Speed Figures, told Daily Racing Form.

Flightline remained unbeaten in three starts with the Malibu win, and his exciting form has made him a finalist for the Eclipse Award for champion sprinter of 2021.

It was a whirlwind campaign for Aloha West in 2021.

In just 10 short months, he made the leap from debut winner to Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding male sprinter on the strength of his dramatic win in the $2 million Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Aloha West was up for a nose victory in the Nov. 6 race at Del Mar. It was his first stakes win and after the race owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners were flanked in the winner’s circle by trainer Wayne Catalano and jockey Jose Ortiz.