Rags-to-riches is a favorite theme among racing fans, and a California-bred gelding named Amazombie was only too willing to fill that order in 2011. A mere throw-in in a $5,000 two-horse deal as a yearling, Amazombie turned back all comers in winning the Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs to cap an unforgettable season for his trainer, Bill Spawr, who co-owns the gelding with Thomas Sanford.

Barbara D. Livingston

From late spring until her final start of 2011 in midsummer, Hilda’s Passion was the fastest filly-mare sprinter in the land. She did not merely win, she dazzled.

Musical Romance was a throwback in 2011. She ran, ran, and ran – 14 starts and 5 wins capped by a decisive victory in the Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint that boosted the Calder-based filly from anonymity to Eclipse Award finalist as outstanding female sprinter. “Not only did she win the Breeders’ Cup, she dominated the race,” trainer and part-owner William Kaplan said. “And every race was better than the one before.” Musical Romance was an unlikely championship candidate at the start of the year.

Churchill Downs

The highlights for Sassy Image in 2011 were packed in a two-month window – spring-summer victories in the Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs and Princess Rooney Handicap at Calder made her the only filly or mare to win two Grade 1 sprints during the season.

On turf, Acclamation was virtually unbeatable in 2011. He wasn’t so bad on the main track, either.

In five appearances on turf, all in California, Acclamation won four consecutive graded stakes. On the main track, he won Del Mar’s biggest race for older horses, the Pacific Classic.

Voters honored his brilliant campaign, which included three Grade 1 victories, by making him a double finalist for Eclipse Awards in the older male and turf male categories.

Led by Havre de Grace, the front-runner for Horse of the Year, the divisional finalists for the 2011 Eclipse Awards were announced on Thursday by the three organizations that vote on the awards, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.

ESPN, HRTV, and Thoroughbred Times have won Media Eclipse Awards, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters announced Thursday.

ESPN won for television-live racing programming for its telecast of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at the 2011 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. The one-hour program at Churchill Down on Nov. 5 culminated with the upset victory of Drosselmeyer over Game On Dude in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Jeannine Edwards, the senior broadcast analyst for ESPN who is a mainstay of the network’s horse racing broadcasts, will host the Eclipse Awards ceremony on Jan. 16 in Beverly Hills, Calif., the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced on Monday.

Edwards, who had announced that she had been selected to host the ceremony via Twitter last week, will be the first female host of the ceremony. A former exercise rider, apprentice jockey, and trainer, Edwards has been with ESPN since 1995 after working as the in-house TV host for Maryland racetracks.