An inconspicuous change in equipment, blinkers off, proved the catalyst for Letruska to rise from relative obscurity and become the most accomplished in her division and an Eclipse Award finalist as outstanding older dirt female of 2021.

Letruska hardly seemed a championship contender when the season began. At best, the daughter of Super Saver was a curiosity – a 5-year-old who began her career in Mexico City before relocating to the United States. The class challenge was daunting, and from late 2019 to late 2020, Letruska mixed flashes of brilliance with recurrent normalcy.

Medina Spirit went from an understudy to stablemate Life Is Good early in 2021, to a Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve winner, to a disputed Derby winner, to a horse who came back in the fall with two terrific performances against older horses, only to perish at the end of a workout on Dec. 6. The results of his necropsy aren’t yet known, but it would be sadly ironic if, as theorized, it was his heart that failed him, because his figurative heart was on display every time he took the track.

Every once in a while a horse comes along where when he trains, it’s so effortless, and so brilliant, that everyone – novice or weary railbird – sees the obvious talent, and remarks, “Who’s that?”

Life Is Good is that kind of horse. Brilliant in his morning training, brilliant in his races, he had a 3-year-old year that, though interrupted by injury and involving a trainer change, was so compelling it made him an obvious finalist for champion 3-year-old male.

Essential Quality is seeking to become only the third 2-year-old male champion to repeat at 3 since 1979, when Spectacular Bid completed a streak of three straight that included Triple Crown winners Affirmed and Seattle Slew.

In the more than four decades since, as horses have raced fewer times and become more specialized, rare is the male horse who can lead his brethren at 2 and then move on to be the best the following year, when the demands include the Triple Crown races and potential starts in the fall against elders.

Shadwell Stables had a memorable season, both in the United States and in Europe, following the death of its founder, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, last March. Leading the way in the United States was Kentucky Oaks heroine Malathaat, who consistently turned in memorable performances throughout the season.

Malathaat, bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Farm, is by Curlin and out of Stonestreet’s Grade 1 winner Dreaming of Julia. That regal pedigree turned several heads at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale, including that of Todd Pletcher, who had trained her dam.

Stonestreet Farm has built a reputation as an operation that regularly campaigns stellar fillies, eventually adding them as jewels in its dazzling broodmare band. Clairiere joined those “Girls in Gold,” as Stonestreet refers to its color-bearing distaffers on its social media feeds, as a homebred to carry Barbara Banke’s silks to Grade 1 victory in 2021, earning her an Eclipse Award finalist slot.

Amid the chaos that was the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar, Modern Games delivered a performance that afternoon worthy of being named a finalist for the Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding 2-year-old.

On a Travers Day card last Aug. 28 at Saratoga that saw a number of racing’s stars – and would-be champions – perform, one potential star-in-the-making was unveiled when Jack Christopher won a six-furlong maiden race by 8 3/4 lengths.

Expectations of Corniche were high from the very beginning. Corniche didn’t disappoint.

Corniche, a son of Quality Road who sold for $1.5 million as a 2-year-old in training in April 2021, won all three of his starts, capped by a front-running, 1 3/4-length triumph in the TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile presented by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance at Del Mar, to become a finalist – and favorite – to win the Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding 2-year-old.

Twenty-nine of the previous 37 winners of the Juvenile have gone on to win the Eclipse Award in this division

Ahead of the 2021 Eclipse Awards, it was widely felt that Pizza Bianca was very unlikely to be voted the honor of outstanding 2-year-old filly in light of what Echo Zulu accomplished in four starts on dirt.

Knowing, however, that comparison is the thief of joy, the Eclipse results should not be allowed to diminish the joyful scene that unfolded at Del Mar when Pizza Bianca won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 5 in dramatic fashion.