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.

A finalist for a Cartier Award as Europe’s leading 2-year-old of 2022, Auguste Rodin has pulled off a most unusual double as a finalist for an Eclipse Award in 2023 as North America’s leading 3-year-old male as well as male turf horse.

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.

Just F Y I put together an unbeaten three-start campaign in 2023, capped by a victory in the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, to make herself a finalist for the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly.

History is on her side. Since the first running of the Breeders’ Cup in 1984, 34 winners of the Juvenile Fillies have been honored with the Eclipse Award as outstanding 2-year-old filly.

Hard to Justify’s credentials easily justify her spot among the three finalists for the Eclipse Award as outstanding 2-year-old filly. Her 3-for-3 campaign, highlighted by a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, made her one of the top picks among voters.

Candied, who stretched out to become a Grade 1 winner in just her second start, is among the finalists for the Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding 2-year-old filly of 2023.

Candied, by perennial leading sire Candy Ride, was bred in Kentucky by Buck Pond Farm. She was a $165,000 purchase by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale. Prior to the Breeders’ Cup this year, Eclipse principal Aron Wellman said Sean Tugel, the partnership’s vice president for bloodstock, deserves the credit for scouting the filly out.

With a high price tag comes high expectations. Muth, who sold for a record-equaling $2 million at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. 2-year-olds in training sale in March did a pretty good job of reaching those expectations in 2023.

Muth won 2 of 4 starts, including the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes. That victory and his runner-up finish to Fierceness in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita earned Muth a spot as finalist for the Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old male division.