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.
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.
