In a Hall of Fame career that has spanned 26 years, trainer Todd Pletcher has conditioned 12 champions, two Kentucky Derby winners, and four Belmont Stakes winners.

While Life Is Good doesn’t fall into any of those categories, Pletcher still calls him, “As good a horse as we’ve ever had.”

In 2022, Life Is Good was about as good a horse as anybody trained, winning three Grade 1 stakes – the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, Whitney, and Woodward – as part of a 4-for-6 campaign that resulted in him being named a finalist for an Eclipse Award in the older dirt male division.

When the search for superlatives to describe what Flightline accomplished in 2022 ends, there will be one moniker left to hang on the unbeaten colt.

Champion.

Secret Oath blossomed in winter at Oaklawn Park and was blanketed by lilies in spring at Churchill Downs. During an enterprising nine-start campaign, Secret Oath ducked no one, raced outside her division twice against colts, won three races including the Grade 1 Longines Kentucky Oaks, placed in four other Grade 1s, and earned $1,603,250.

It takes an unusually good turf horse to be considered for 3-year-old male championship honors. Dirt races with a particular focus on the Triple Crown form the division’s spine. Modern Games isn’t just a turf horse, he’s a turf horse based in England, but he was so good in two 2022 North American starts that here he stands, one of three 3-year-olds who could be crowned champion, as well as being a finalist for male turf champion.

Epicenter probably was the best dirt-route 3-year-old to race in North America during 2022, and the favorite to be crowned a champion in the 3-year-old male division. Ironically, he was the best horse in the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve. It was a race Epicenter lost, his second-place finish leaving the door ajar for one of the other two Eclipse Award finalists, Modern Games and Taiba, to sneak through it.

Unmistakable class and uncommon versatility were hallmarks in a remarkable first season for Wonder Wheel.

“She’s just a top filly,” her trainer, Mark Casse, said after the daughter of uber-sire Into Mischief capped a 4-for-5 year by rallying to win the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. “For her to overcome what she did, I think that just shows what a good horse she is.”

Just how good was Meditate in 2022? The gray Irish-bred filly is one of three finalists for a divisional Eclipse Award despite many voters believing she began with two strikes against her: She raced just once in North America, and she’s a turf specialist in what is traditionally a category won by dirt runners.

Leave No Trace overachieved from start to finish in 2022.

The dark bay filly began by capturing her career debut on July 20 at Saratoga, winning a 5 1/2-furlong restricted maiden race by 2 3/4 lengths as a 4-1 chance under Irad Ortiz Jr.

Then came an immediate breakthrough. Dismissed at 14-1 making her next start in the Grade 1 Spinaway on closing weekend at Saratoga, Leave No Trace pressed all the pace before edging clear in the final furlong of the seven-furlong race to prevail by 1 1/2 lengths over favored Wonder Wheel.

The Irish-based and -bred Victoria Road made his one start in North America count by outfinishing fellow European Silver Knott by a nose in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, a performance that earned him a spot among the finalists for the Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old male division.

Victoria Road is a son of Saxon Warrior owned by Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Georg von Opel’s Westerberg Racing. He is trained by Aidan O’Brien, who won his fifth running of the Juvenile Turf, which has been run 16 times.

Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables enjoyed another consistent year in 2022, with accomplishments highlighted by another judiciously managed American classic winner to again place the operation among the divisional Eclipse Award finalists.

Klarman, 65 and a native of Massachusetts, was known for a long ownership partnership with William Lawrence, with whom he campaigned 2019 Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar. The duo owned the Eclipse as outstanding owner for that season. However, Lawrence was in the process of exiting the business, and Klarman kept on.