Brad Cox had an inkling early on that Essential Quality could be special.

“I had a lot of high hopes for the horse after being around him for a month,” Cox said. “I really liked him from the start. He was a little stubborn when he came in, but once he got out on the racetrack I said, ‘This is a good horse.’ ”

What Cox saw in the morning revealed itself in the afternoon as Essential Quality went 3 for 3 with two Grade 1 victories in a nine-week span to become a finalist for the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old male.

Every year Sackatoga Stables teams up with trainer Barclay Tagg to buy a couple of horses. Twice now they’ve hit the mother lode, a remarkable strike rate when facing operations that buy scores more horses in the hope a couple pan out to pay for the rest.

His career encompassed four starts in less than four months, and was over before the end of May, but Nadal made such a strong impression in that brief time that he is a finalist in the 3-year-old male division along with two Triple Crown race winners, having compiled a perfect record, including three graded stakes wins, one a Grade 1.

The year 2020 caused plenty of interruptions in racing, most notably an altered Triple Crown that found the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve run in September. There might not have been a horse who benefited more from the four-month postponement than Authentic, who, had the Derby been run on May 2, would have been competing in the race three days before his actual third birthday.

Fire At Will proved to be one of the more versatile 2-year-olds of 2020, winning races on multiple surfaces and in multiple styles to earn a spot as a finalist for the Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old male division.

Before the page gets turned on 2020, the year’s champions are to be announced, and on Saturday the top three finalists for 17 Eclipse Award categories – 12 for horses, five for humans – will be revealed beginning at noon Eastern (9 a.m. Pacific) on TVG.

Natalie Voss, a reporter and editor-and-chief for The Paulick Report, was named the Eclipse Award winner for both categories in writing, for stories dealing with the aftercare of retired racehorses, the administrators of the awards announced on Wednesday.

Voss won the Feature/Commentary Writing Eclipse for “An Angel on His Shoulder,” and the News/Enterprise Writing Eclipse for a three-part series dealing with the past, present, and future of aftercare efforts. Voss also won an Eclipse in 2016 for News/Enterprise Writing.

The Breeders’ Cup was designed to be a year-end event where championships are determined, and it succeeded magnificently in that pursuit Friday and Saturday at Keeneland. Just about every major divisional award was decided on the racetrack, most notably Horse of the Year, with Kentucky Derby winner Authentic outrunning top older horses Improbable, Maximum Security, and Tom’s d’Etat, as well as fellow classic-winning 3-year-old Tiz the Law, in a star-studded Classic.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For only the second time in the 49-year history of the Eclipse Awards, the Horse of the Year and all the people associated with him swept their categories, as the Runhappy Eclipse Awards dinner on Thursday night at Gulfstream Park provided a glorious epilogue to the 2019 season of Bricks and Mortar.

It has been more than 20 years since an Eclipse Awards sweep for Horse of the Year plus that horse’s jockey, trainer, and owner, but that scenario stands a very good chance of occurring on Thursday night at the 49th annual Runhappy Eclipse Awards dinner at Gulfstream Park.