Snap Decision had won 2 of 18 starts by the time he left trainer Shug McGaughey’s stable in late 2018. Over the next two years, Snap Decision had a career turnaround, developing into an outstanding jumper.

After finishing second in his first two starts over hurdles in maiden races in spring 2019, Snap Decision has reeled off seven consecutive wins, including five stakes. In 2020, Snap Decision was unbeaten in three stakes, gaining a spot among the finalists for the Eclipse Award as the year’s outstanding steeplechaser.

When his mood is right, Rashaan can be a brilliant racehorse. Working with the veteran Irish-bred gelding to coax such performances can be a test for the people around him.

Trainer Leslie Young said Rashaan can “overthink” racing. Jockey Thomas Garner, who doubles as Rashaan’s exercise rider, said there are mornings Rashaan does not want to participate in any activity.

The delayed American steeplechase season of 2020 finally began a few months late in June with a familiar name in the winner’s circle of a famous race.

Moscato won the Grade 3 Temple Gwathmey Hurdle at Middleburg Racecourse in Virginia on June 13 for the second consecutive year. The race is typically run earlier in the spring, but the coronavirus forced a postponement. The Middleburg race had its centennial running in 2020, but without spectators.

Rushing Fall was so consistent throughout her career that it seemed strange when she was beaten.

In 2020, Rushing Fall was nearly perfect, winning three consecutive stakes from early June to late August before finishing a game second by a neck to the Irish filly Audarya in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 7 at Keeneland. The Filly and Mare Turf was Rushing Fall’s final start.

Some organizations, when they make it to the top, become risk averse. With the power and wherewithal to control circumstances to a great extent, they prize the sure thing over taking chances that might, should they work, bring great reward.

Coolmore and trainer Aidan O’Brien are no such operation. O’Brien doesn’t hesitate trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, to poke and prod and experiment and see if he can make something difficult actually happen.

Channel Maker crossed the finish fourth in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes on Aug. 1 at Saratoga. A disqualification moved him up to third. But was Channel Maker still even qualified to race in high-level turf stakes?

Channel Maker emerged from the Bowling Green a one-time winner from his last 14 starts. During that string, he’d crossed the wire better than fourth only twice. His 6-year-old campaign of 2020 started like a long march on a short pier – three fourths, two eighth-place finishes. Channel Maker is a gelding, an aging one; his stakes career was ticking down.

Luis Cardenas has made the impressive leap from hotwalker to top money-earning apprentice jockey in North America.

The 23-year-old native of Peru reached the summit last year, when his mounts earned $2,235,529. Overall, Cardenas won 41 races from 587 starts. He also was the leading apprentice in New York and won the first race of last year’s meet at Saratoga.

For his accomplishments, Cardenas is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2020.

In 2020, John Velazquez didn’t win the most races he’s ever won in a single year. He did, however, win some of the most important ones.

Velazquez won his third Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve and his first Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic – both aboard Authentic – and those wins, as well as three Grade 1 victories aboard the fantastic filly Gamine, helped earn him a spot as a finalist for his third Eclipse Award as North America’s top jockey.

Peter E. Blum, who bought his first horse while at the University of North Carolina, climbed to the pinnacle in 2020 as the breeder of Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve and Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Authentic, the favorite to be named Horse of the Year at the Eclipse Awards.

Many high-level turf horses spend the first couple months of the year taking it easy. The heart of the grass-racing season, after all, comes in summer and fall, and many a turf campaign is plotted accordingly.