Authentic became the fourth horse in the last seven years to win both Horse of the Year and the 3-year-old male title, the highlight of the 50th annual Eclipse Awards, which were announced Thursday night.

Authentic is favored to be named Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male, and his connections – trainer Bob Baffert, jockey John Velazquez, breeder Peter Blum, and an ownership group headed by Spendthrift Farm – all are finalists in their respective categories for the 50th annual Eclipse Awards, to be announced Thursday night in an unusual presentation that serves as an appropriate coda to an unusual year.

Authentic, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic, the top older horse Improbable, and the top older mare Monomoy Girl are the finalists for the 2020 Horse of the Year, it was announced Saturday by the three organizations which vote for the Eclipse Awards, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form, and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.

The first-ever internationally based winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint was a 4-year-old filly whose name and prior record evoked images of Cinderella. The victory was sufficiently impressive to land her among the Eclipse Awards finalists in the female sprinter category.

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.