On the final circuit of the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory Hurdle at Aqueduct in September, Merry Maker crossed the last obstacle trailing the field of seven.

The position was not a major concern for jockey Parker Hendriks, who assessed that Merry Maker was in contention with a half-mile remaining.

“My guy just kept grinding to the wire,” Hendriks said.

Merry Maker’s sustained rally resulted in a 15-1 upset win in the most prestigious victory of his career. The $150,000 Lonesome Glory at 2 1/2 miles is New York’s top jump race of the autumn.

A gelding who began the season as a maiden race winner with plenty to prove did that and much more in 2023.

Awakened won the first Grade 1 race of his career at the famous Saratoga meeting in August and ended the season as a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding steeplechaser of the year.

A wildly successful three-continent campaign in 2023 left the young filly Mawj as a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the outstanding turf female as well as champion 3-year-old filly of 2023.

Mawj was only a nose away from a perfect five-race season through the year. In the end, the only runner to beat her was a stablemate also owned and bred by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing.

In 2021, Inspiral was the champion 2-year-old filly in Europe. The following year, she gained the 3-year-old filly title on that continent.

She may gain a championship on a different hemisphere for her 4-year-old campaign in 2023.

Inspiral is a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the leading turf female in the United States following her dazzling win in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at 1 1/4 miles on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.

How consistent was the turf mare In Italian in 2023?

She was a nose and a head away from winning four consecutive Grade 1 races in many of the toughest races in the nation for fillies and mares on turf.

In Italian’s consistently high level of performance in those races in Kentucky and New York has resulted in her position on the list of finalists for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female for the second consecutive year.

Up to the Mark began his 2023 campaign as a 12-1 shot in a first-level allowance race at Gulfstream Park. He ended it clearly the best turf horse based in North America after a seven-start season strong enough to make him an Eclipse Awards finalist in the older turf male division and merit Horse of the Year consideration.

As far back as his 2-year-old campaign of 2020, Master of The Seas had suggested he was a top-level horse. It was not until the second half of his 5-year-old season of 2023 that the gelding truly lived up to his potential. He did so not once, not twice, but three times, all while racing far from trainer Charlie Appleby’s base in England.

A Godolphin homebred by Dubawi out of Firth of Lorne, by Danehill, Master of The Seas was a Group 2 winner at 2 and 3 and nearly toook down the English 2000 Guineas, losing by a short head to the talented Poetic Flare.

After another season of sustained excellence, Echo Zulu finds herself an Eclipse Award finalist for the third consecutive year. A perfect 3-for-3 record in 2023 makes her a contender for champion female sprinter.

Echo Zulu was bred in Kentucky by Betz, J. Betz, Burns, CHNNHK, Magers, CoCo Equine, and Ramsby. She was a $300,000 yearling purchase at the 2020 Keeneland September sale by Winchell Thoroughbreds, which went on to campaign her in partnership with L and N Racing.

Maple Leaf Mel was a star who flashed too briefly, but who dazzled. The New York-bred filly was in front at every chart point of call in every race she finished, officially winning five races, including a pair of graded stakes in 2023, by a combined 20 1/4 lengths. Voters ensured she will retain a spot in Thoroughbred history by making her one of the finalists for the Eclipse Award as outstanding female sprinter of 2023.

Gunite put together a championship-caliber campaign in 2023, capturing the Grade 1 Forego over eventual Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Elite Power and compiling earnings of $1.4 million. For his record, Gunite is a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding male sprinter.

Gunite’s season, which featured three stakes wins, hit a high point in August. He was seeking to turn the tables on nemesis Elite Power in the Forego at Saratoga, a month after the reigning champion sprinter had edged him by a head in the track’s Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap.