Despite a glittery pedigree and towering physique, Idiomatic was an unheralded allowance filly when she began her 2023 campaign in January at Turfway Park for owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms and trainer Brad Cox.
“We didn’t have any idea at that time she would turn into what she has become,” Cox said. But the trainer knew she had all the right ingredients. “Big, huge Juddmonte pedigree, and by a world-class sire [Curlin]. When you look at it overall, it’s no shock she’s as good as she is.”
Goodnight Olive had a tough act to follow in 2023 while trying to match her 2022 championship campaign.
Following an outstanding 2022 that earned her the Eclipse Award as outstanding female sprinter and distinction as an Eclipse finalist for older dirt female, the consistent 5-year-old mare came back for more. By the end of 2023, Goodnight Olive once again found herself a finalist in both categories.
Hopes were high for Clairiere long before she started. After all, when she began racing in 2020, she was one of the most impeccably bred juvenile fillies in North America. By the time her career ended in 2023, Clairiere had compiled an on-track résumé that matched her pedigree.
Sired by Curlin and the first runner produced by multiple Grade 1 winner Cavorting, Clairiere is an Eclipse finalist as outstanding older dirt female of 2023. It is a familiar role. Clairiere was an Eclipse finalist as outstanding 3-year-old filly in 2021 and older dirt female in 2022.
White Abarrio and trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. traveled quite the circuitous route on their way to the winner’s circle in two of the biggest races for older dirt male horses in North America in 2023.
But a victory in the Grade 1 Whitney followed three months later by a score in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic made White Abarrio a finalist for the Eclipse Award in the older dirt male division.
In 2022, Cody’s Wish and his bond with a young man stricken with a rare genetic disorder gave racing its feel-good story of the year. Somewhat overlooked was the horse’s race record, which included four wins from five starts and a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
While the bond between Cody’s Wish and Cody Dorman remained a major story in 2023, Cody’s Wish earned headlines for his supreme talent, which could very well carry him to an Eclipse Award as North America’s top older dirt male horse, leading male sprinter, and possibly Horse of the Year.
From spring to fall, from maiden victory to Breeders’ Cup runner-up, Randomized delivered an exceptional 2023 campaign worthy of Eclipse Award consideration as outstanding 3-year-old filly.
Randomized raced from March to November in 2023, but it all started at the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale. A filly by Nyquist bred in Kentucky by Cove Springs LLC, Randomized was purchased for $420,000 by Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables and later sent to trainer Chad Brown.
Elite Power flew under the radar in 2022 before victories in the Grade 2 Vosburgh and Breeders’ Cup Sprint carried him to an Eclipse Award as champion sprinter in 2022.
Elite Power snuck up on nobody in 2023, raising his game to another level, running some of the fastest races of the year and capping off his campaign with a repeat victory in the Grade 1 Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
A chestnut Good Magic colt with a pronounced parrot mouth lined up in the starting gate to race for the first time on Jan. 28, 2023, and at odds of 11-1 ran off to a fast, decisive, and impressive seven-furlong maiden win. But when Mage’s connections came back five weeks later in the Fountain of Youth, a Grade 2 route race headlined by 2-year-old champion Forte, it felt like a case of too much, too soon.
As it happened, it was just enough at just the right time.
Something odd was happening as parimutuel bets placed on the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes on May 13 at Belmont Park began accumulating. Bishops Bay, from the barn of multiple Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox, was the obvious Peter Pan favorite, yet a colt who had notched a second-start maiden win about two months earlier at Gulfstream Park, Arcangelo, was taking surprising action.
For good reason. Bishops Bay, a talented colt, ran to expectations. In the end, Arcangelo simply outran Bishops Bay. The Peter Pan win was only the beginning.
