After another outstanding season, Imperial Hint is a finalist for an Eclipse Award in the male sprinter division for the second year in a row.
Imperial Hint won four of six starts in 2018, all for owner Raymond Mamone, trainer Luis Carvajal Jr., and jockey Javier Castellano. After overcoming a minor foot issue, he tuned up for his 5-year-old campaign with an easy five-length win in a Florida-bred stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, where he spent the winter.
Given that the last six – and seven of the last eight –winners of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf have been finalists for the champion 2-year-old filly Eclipse Award, one can say with certainty that the Eclipse electorate respects winners of the race.
To a point, that is.
Jaywalk was a very nice filly out of the box. She finished second in her June debut at Monmouth Park after setting the early pace, came back to record a front-running romp in her second start, which came in the mud at Parx Racing in July, and then became the first stakes winner for her freshman sire Cross Traffic when she landed the White Clay Creek Stakes at Delaware Park in August, showing an added dimension by coming from off the pace.
Nice filly, for sure.
Bellafina was so highly regarded when she began her career last summer that jockey Flavien Prat flew from New York to California to ride her in a maiden race at Los Alamitos on July 4.
Even though she finished second, owner Kaleem Shah and trainer Simon Callaghan were undeterred. For her second race, with Prat back aboard, Bellafina started in the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs at Del Mar on Aug. 5. Their confidence was rewarded when Bellafina won by 4 1/4 lengths while racing with blinkers for the first time.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. A chestnut colt with a big white face trained by Bob Baffert for WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, and Starlight Racing wins his first three starts to become a major contender for the Kentucky Derby.
Sure, Improbable started his career about five months earlier than Justify – the 2018 Triple Crown winner for the aforementioned connections – but it’s hard not to acknowledge the similarities.
Triple Crown winner Justify had been gone less than three weeks when the next potential star in trainer Bob Baffert’s stable showed himself the afternoon of Aug. 18 at Del Mar.
That was the day a colt named Game Winner rolled to a 5 3/4-length victory in his career debut, one that caught even Baffert a bit by surprise.
Four months apart, Zanjabeel showed why he was one of the best chasers in the United States in 2018 – and how he thrives in the longest races.
In May, in his third start of the year, Zanjabeel won the Grade 1 Iroquois Hurdle at three miles at Percy Warner Park, outside of Nashville. Zanjabeel did not race during the summer. When Belmont Park opened its fall meeting in September, Zanjabeel was the 8-5 favorite in the Lonesome Glory Hurdle at 2 1/2 miles, winning by 1 3/4 lengths against a strong field.
When Optimus Prime arrived at Richard Hendriks’s stable last summer, the trainer saw the gelding for the first time. Hendriks and owner George Mahoney purchased Optimus Prime on the advice of Irish jockey Noel Fehily, who had ridden Optimus Prime to three consecutive wins fall 2017 and in January.
Hendriks and Mahoney, who races as Rosbrian Farm, were looking for a prospect for the late-season Grade 1 races in the United States. They found more than a suitable candidate in Optimus Prime.
With a purse of $450,000, the Grade 1 Grand National at Far Hills was the nation’s richest hurdle race in 2018. Appropriately, the popular event in the New Jersey countryside on Oct. 20 drew an international field and was a showcase for the Irish runner Jury Duty.
Sent off as the 6-5 favorite, Jury Duty won the Grand National at 2 5/8 miles by 3 1/4 lengths over Tornado Watch in his only American start of the year. The win was enough to earn Jury Duty a spot as a finalist for an Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding steeplechaser of 2018.
Barbara D. Livingston, the staff photographer for Daily Racing Form, has been selected for her record fourth Eclipse Award for photography, according to the Eclipse Award administrators, which announced all six media winners on Friday.
