Gun Runner was one for the money in 2018, and then he was gone. The 2017 Horse of the Year was kept in training as a 5-year-old long enough to win the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 27, in a conclusive 2 1/2-length victory over 3-year-old champion West Coast, to put $7 million worth of icing on an exemplary career that touched parts of four seasons.

Once the Pegasus was in the books, Gun Runner entered stud at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky, along with his heady bankroll of just under $16 million.

Grade 1 races, which pit the highest quality stakes horses against each other, are typically among the most difficult to win. However, Chad Brown’s success in 2018 was such that he made the difficult seem routine.

Brown on the year won 20 Grade 1 races, the most of any trainer in North America. Moreover, he added 27 victories in Grade 2 and Grade 3 races to notch 47 graded wins altogether in 2018 as his stable amassed $27,546,057 in purse earnings, second-most all time by a trainer in a calendar year, trailing only Todd Pletcher’s record of $28,116,097 set in 2007.

Highlighted by his development of Justify from an unraced 3-year-old to the 13th winner of the Triple Crown, trainer Bob Baffert has been recognized as an Eclipse Award finalist for 2018.

Justify put Baffert, a Hall of Famer and already a four-time Eclipse Award winner, in select company with the late Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons as the only trainers to have won the Triple Crown twice. Baffert’s first Triple Crown came with American Pharoah, the eventual 2015 Horse of the Year who would cap his career by winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic that fall.

Although trainer Steve Asmussen lost Gun Runner to retirement after the colt’s victory in last January’s Pegasus World Cup, his stable lost none of its usual proficiency in 2018. He finished the year with 401 victories from 1,905 starters, and his stable’s earnings of $26,457,276 were second-most among trainers, behind only Chad Brown.

That success, topped by Gun Runner’s Pegasus send-off, has resulted in Asmussen being selected as an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding trainer of 2018.

Heading into 2018 jockey Mike Smith had seemingly accomplished just about all there is to achieve in racing . . . and then along came Justify.

Justify made the Hall of Fame rider a Triple Crown-winning jockey at 52. The Triple Crown has been won just 13 times in American racing history, and for his journey to that summit Smith is a finalist for the Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey of 2018. He has won the category twice before, in 1993 and 1994.

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. has for some time established himself as an elite rider, but one could argue the 26-year-old Puerto Rico native had a breakout year in 2018.

Ortiz led all North American-based riders in wins and mount earnings, with 346 and $27,727,039, respectively. He had 1,616 mounts in 2018. Ortiz also won an assortment of important races across the country – all while winning riding titles at Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga.

It’s a special start to a career when a rider’s first winner comes for a Hall of Fame trainer.

Such was the case for Edgar Morales, who is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2018.

Morales won the first race of his career for the late Jack Van Berg, in a $7,500 claiming route over 1 1/8 miles on Oct. 15, 2017 at Keeneland. His mount, Star Dog, was up for a half-length win in the field of 12.

“That horse came from far back,” Morales said. “Jack Van Berg told me to be patient, and I won!”

Maryland’s tradition of producing top-class apprentice jockeys continued in 2018 with the emergence of Weston Hamilton.

Hamilton led all of his North American-based peers in both wins – with 118 – and mount earnings, with $3,440,135 through the final day of his apprentice allowance Dec. 22.

For the accomplishments, Hamilton is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2018.

Justify’s bandwagon simply kept growing as the colt streaked in his meteoric fashion toward the Triple Crown. On the ownership line in the program on Belmont Stakes Day, that bandwagon was driven, in alphabetical order, by China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners LLC, Starlight Racing, and WinStar Farm.

Brothers Kosta and Pete Hronis jumped into Thoroughbred ownership in 2010 and have swiftly found success at the top levels of the game. Their multiple Grade 1 winner Accelerate is in line to be the outfit’s second divisional Eclipse Award champion, joining 2015 champion 3-year-old filly Stellar Wind.