Those who were paying attention to the waning days of 2017 were treated to the sight of a colt named City of Light making his stakes debut in a Grade 1 event and running away with the seven-furlong Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita Park.

The calendar page turned, and City of Light was asked by trainer Michael McCarthy to grow up fast. To begin his 2018 campaign, the son of Quality Road answered with resounding back-to-back wins in the Grade 1 Triple Bend on March 10 and then an upset of Santa Anita Handicap winner Accelerate in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 14.

On the first edition of last year’s Top Thoroughbred Poll sponsored by the NTRA, published Jan. 29, 2018, a total of 49 different horses received at least one vote of support from the 38 racing experts who submitted opinions.

Accelerate was not among the 49.

The setbacks that sidelined Sistercharlie in 2017 and 2018 gave owner Peter Brant a profound sense of appreciation moments after the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.

Sistercharlie won her third consecutive Grade 1 race in the BC Filly and Mare Turf, holding off by a neck a sustained threat from Wild Illusion in the richest turf race for females in the United States. As a result of that victory and her exceptional campaign, Sistercharlie is among the finalists for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2018.

What Enable accomplished in a brief three-race campaign in 2018 made her one of the most celebrated racehorses in the world. What Enable did at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, in the last of those races, gave her a unique place in American racing history.

Enable won the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf, the nation’s richest grass race, a month after winning the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris. Enable became the first horse to win both races in the same year since the BC Turf was launched in 1984. Seven horses had tried before Enable.

No one could beat A Raving Beauty in Grade 1 races at a mile on turf in 2018.

Twice, A Raving Beauty started at a mile, and both times she prevailed in prestigious races for fillies and mares on grass – the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes on June 9 at Belmont Park and the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes on Oct. 6 at Keeneland.

If there were an Eclipse Award category for turf sprinters, voters would not have had to look beyond Stormy Liberal, who scored a repeat victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Instead, Stormy Liberal is an Eclipse Award finalist in both the male sprint and male turf divisions.

While it is rare for a turf sprinter to be recognized as an Eclipse finalist in the male sprint division and unprecedented in the male turf category, the four-race win streak Stormy Liberal put together to end his season put him over the top.

Glorious Empire went from claiming horse in June to Eclipse Award finalist in January. That’s a road rarely traveled, yet only the latest leg in a long, winding journey.

From England to Hong Kong, back to England and on to America, Glorious Empire’s career has spanned the globe. He has struggled with exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (bleeding), but under the care of trainer James L. “Chuck” Lawrence II, Glorious Empire somehow rose to the top of the East Coast turf-route division during 2018.

In the span of just 15 autumn days, Shamrock Rose went from an unknown to a major contender in the filly-mare sprint division, as back-to-back victories at long odds in the Grade 2 Raven Run and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint catapulted the 3-year-old filly into contention for divisional supremacy.

The year unfolded in relative obscurity for Shamrock Rose. Fourth in the Busher and second in the Cicada, both in March at Aqueduct, the bay filly could only muster a third-place finish in the Weber City Miss at Laurel Park in April.

After Marley’s Freedom finished a non-threatening sixth in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie on the Pegasus World Cup card in January in her first start as a 4-year-old, few could have guessed the filly would blossom into a major player in the filly-mare sprint division.

Trained at the time by Bob Hess Jr., Marley’s Freedom then finished second in March in the Grade 2 Santa Monica at her home track, Santa Anita, before powering to victory in a second-level allowance in April.

Although her final two races were disappointing, there’s no question that 2018 and her entire three-year career were an unqualified success for Finley’sluckycharm, who is among the three finalists for the Eclipse Award as champion female sprinter for 2018.