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History is expected to be made on Monday night at the 41st annual Eclipse Awards dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., because if Havre de Grace, the perceived front-runner, does in fact make off with the coveted golden trophy for 2011 Horse of the Year, she will become the third consecutive female to win that honor, a feat never before accomplished in American racing.

[WATCH LIVE: 2011 Eclipse Awards - 8 p.m. Eastern on Monday, Jan. 16]

Havre de Grace came out on top in an online fan vote for Horse of the Year conducted by Daily Racing Form and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the two organizations announced Friday. The vote was part of a free-to-enter sweepstakes that required fans to select the horse they felt deserved to win the 2011 Horse of the Year Award, which will be announced Monday in Beverly Hills, Calif., at the 41st annual Eclipse Awards dinner.

The Stronach Group, the private company formed from the gambling assets of MI Developments, will sponsor the Eclipse Awards ceremony for the next two years, including this year, the event’s administrators announced on Thursday.

As part of the sponsorship agreement, the Eclipse Awards ceremony in 2013 will be held at Gulfstream Park, the Hallandale, Fla., track owned by the Stronach Group. The track’s grandstand includes a theater designed to host events.

Make your selection for the top horse in each division and on Jan. 16, watch as the winners are announced live on DRF.com with live streaming video of the 41st Annual Eclipse Awards dinner in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The most consistent Thoroughbred who jumped in 2011, Decoy Daddy made seven starts in classy company, won three times, finished second twice, and topped $124,000 in earnings. He won two of American steeplechasing’s most historic stakes.

But he probably won’t win the Eclipse Award. He won’t even win best horse to compete in green, yellow, and white silks.

Although jockey Javier Castellano trailed fellow Eclipse finalists Ramon Dominguez and John Velazquez in money won in 2011, he ended the year on top in another key category: Grade 1 victories.

In North America’s elite stakes at the Grade 1 level, the Venezuelan-born Castellano notched 11 victories, most of any rider, with Stay Thirsty’s triumph in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga being the most recognizable.

Rosario Montanez was a constant presence in the winner’s circle in 2011. Before losing his apprentice allowance in August, he knocked out 120 wins and $3.4 million in mount earnings and finished the year with 165 wins and earnings of $4.8 million. The numbers were among the best for an apprentice jockey in North America, and Montanez has been honored as a finalist for the Eclipse Award for champion apprentice jockey.

Coglianese Photos

Of all the story lines to emerge from the Breeders’ Cup, few if any were more heart warming than Perfect Shirl’s victory in the Emirates Airline Filly and Mare Turf, a stirring example of persistence and patience rewarded for breeder-owner Charles Fipke and trainer Roger Attfield.