One thrilling race in New Jersey in the fall defined the year for the 11-year-old Mr. Hot Stuff, a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding steeplechaser of 2017.

Mr. Hot Stuff struggled through his first four starts of the year, with only a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Temple Gwathmey Handicap in South Carolina to show for his effort. Then came the Grade 1 Grand National Stakes at Far Hills in New Jersey in October. In the 4:57.40 needed to run the 2 5/8 miles, Mr. Hot Stuff claimed his first major win since 2013.

From minor handicaps to Grade 1 races, All the Way Jose was part of the 2017 steeplechase season from start to finish in 2017.

All the Way Jose ran in four consecutive Grade 1 races in the summer and fall and won his first race at that level in the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory Handicap on Sept. 21 at Belmont Park. For the season, All the Way Jose is a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding steeplechaser of 2017.

Just when it seems there are few statistical accomplishments left for Chad Brown to surpass, he raises the bar again. That was the case for Brown in 2017, with his horses having won more than $26.2 million in purse money, bettering his previous high in 2016, when his stable won more than $23.1 million and he earned an Eclipse Award as champion trainer. He is a finalist to win his second consecutive Eclipse Award.

Steve Asmussen started diffferent 489 horses in 2017, the most of any North American trainer, but it was his stellar training and management of one in particular, Horse of the Year favorite Gun Runner, that highlighted his year and made him an Eclipse Award finalist.

Propelled by the early-season success of Arrogate, winner of the Pegasus World Cup and Dubai World Cup, Hall of Fame trainer Baffert finished 2017 with the richest yearly haul of earnings of his prestigious career, with his stable making more than $21.1 million in North America and more than $27.3 million when earnings from the Dubai World Cup are included. His success in 2017 has made Baffert a finalist for his fifth Eclipse Award as champion trainer.

Horse racing’s gold standard is success in Grade 1 races, and no rider won more of those last year than Mike Smith. From the inaugural Pegasus World Cup with Arrogate in January to the American Oaks with Daddys Lil Darling in December, Smith’s record of 15 such victories has made him an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding jockey of 2017.

Smith, a 52-year-old native of Roswell, N.M., is seeking his third win in the category after taking the Eclipse in 1993 and 1994.

It was a year of firsts for jockey Jose Ortiz, who is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding jockey of 2017.

He led all North American-based riders in mount earnings for the first time, with $27,318,875. Ortiz also won his first classic aboard Tapwrit in the Belmont Stakes. And he and wife Taylor welcomed their first child, Leilani.

Javier Castellano was literally all over the map in 2017.

Castellano is bidding for a fifth consecutive Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey following a year in which he won 37 graded stakes races from coast to coast, led by the Preakness with Cloud Computing and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with Rushing Fall.

:: 2016 Eclipse Awards Winners

Barbara D. Livingston, the chief photographer for Daily Racing Form, has been named the Eclipse Award winner for audio/multimedia for a tribute to the champion racehorse Man o’ War that was posted on DRF.com on March 24, the administrators of the awards announced Wednesday.