From the big race of the spring to the showcase stakes of the summer, Snap Decision took his customary position as a leader in the American steeplechase division in 2022.

All that was missing was a major stakes win in the fall.

Snap Decision, an 8-year-old in 2022, accomplished enough to gain a position as a leading finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding steeplechaser, the third consecutive year the gelding has been nominated.

Snap Decision was the only two-time Grade 1 winner in 2022 in American jump racing.

In Britain, Ireland, and the United States, Hewick claimed major stakes for jumpers in 2022.

A comprehensive win in the Grade 1, $250,000 Grand National at Far Hills Racecourse in New Jersey on Oct. 15 in his final start of the year landed Hewick on the list of finalists for the Eclipse Award as the 2022 outstanding steeplechaser – and into an Irish pub for a victory celebration.

The first time Down Royal raced at Saratoga, she finished last of 10 in a maiden race for 2-year-old sprinters on a sloppy track in July 2016. Six years later, Down Royal was back at Saratoga with an incredibly different result.

She was the center of attention early on a Wednesday afternoon in July when she won the Grade 1 A.P. Smithwick Hurdle, a $150,000 race at 2 1/16 miles, for the richest win of her career.

For all her lofty accomplishments against fillies and mares in her career, two races against males in the autumn of 2022 have largely defined the career of War Like Goddess.

A four-time stakes winner in 2021, War Like Goddess was a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female that year. She is back in the same position for the 2022 season for her successful five-race campaign in Kentucky and New York, a season filled with a dramatic losses and electrifying wins.

Regal Glory amassed a fine collection of trophies for owner Peter Brant in important turf stakes for fillies and mares in 2022, easily securing a place among the finalists for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female.

From coast to coast, Regal Glory ran in leading races for the division at top tracks.

Keeping up with In Italian in 2022 was a dangerous tactic.

In nearly all of her seven races, In Italian set the pace, a tactic that led to four wins, including two in Grade 1 stakes, and a position among the three finalists for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female of the year.

A season that started with a win in a first-condition allowance race on the second Wednesday of January at Tampa Bay Downs ended with a game second to Tuesday in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 5 at Keeneland.

Rebel’s Romance never got to race during his first trip to America. Sent to New York for the 2021 Belmont Stakes, Rebel’s Romance developed a leg infection that precluded him running.

Rebel’s Romance’s second trip to America worked out much better. Gelded after his 3-year-old season and remade from a dirt horse into a 1 1/2-mile turf performer, Rebel’s Romance stormed to a 2 1/2-length victory in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf, a showing strong enough to make him an Eclipse Award finalist.

Nations Pride was favored in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf. He finished fifth, never coming close to contention, but the Godolphin homebred accomplished enough earlier in the year to make him a finalist for champion male turf horse of 2022.

Trained by Charlie Appleby, Nations Pride is by Teofilo out of Important Time, by Oasis Dream. He wintered in Dubai, won an English Derby prep in stylish fashion, finished eighth in the Derby at Epsom, and then was marked for North American racing by England-based Appleby.

Echo Zulu initially was meant to chase after a second straight Eclipse Award as the top 3-year-old filly of 2022, but a mid-course correction eventually was undertaken after the brilliant daughter of Gun Runner was defeated for the first time in the Kentucky Oaks.

Coming off a sensational 2021 during which she easily won all four starts to earn the Eclipse for outstanding 2-year-old filly, Echo Zulu remained unbeaten by winning by a nose in her 3-year-old debut, the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks in late March.

The story of Caravel already had plenty of layers to it, even before she stunned the racing world by winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint as a 42-1 outsider.