Not to get too dramatic about it, but anytime a case of colic becomes so severe as to require surgery, a horse is in danger of dying. Carl Spackler didn’t just make it through colic surgery in fall 2023 and recover, he made it back to the races and recovered his best form – and then some.

Four wins from six starts, two Grade 1s in which he beat FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile winner More Than Looks, and Carl Spackler put together a 2024 campaign worthy of Eclipse Award consideration.

Winning is business as usual for The Chosen Vron.

He was a neck from a perfect campaign last year and for a season highlighted by a popular victory in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar, he is an Eclipse Award finalist as champion male sprinter of 2024.

The Chosen Vron has compiled a career record of 19 wins from 25 starts. He went 5 for 6 in 2024, winning five consecutive stakes races before finishing second by a neck in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien on Aug. 24 at Del Mar.

It would be hard to follow up on the year Juddmonte had in 2023, with Idiomatic and Elite Power both winning Breeders’ Cup races and securing divisional championships to make the international operation a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding owner and breeder. But last year, Juddmonte again had a solid year, with Idiomatic bringing its colors to another Eclipse finalist nod and giving the outfit finalist recognition in the owner category.

It would be an understatement to call Cogburn a quick horse.

He might, quite frankly, be faster than the proverbial speeding bullet.

At least it feels that way – and the numbers do back up his exceptional speed.

Cogburn set a North American course record when winning the Grade 1 Jaipur in June at Saratoga – and the effort earned him the highest Beyer Speed Figure of 2024. For those reasons and more, Cogburn is an Eclipse Award finalist for champion male sprinter of 2024.

Flavien Prat strengthened his case for the Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey of 2024 with each passing month last year. He won the Grade 1, $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational aboard National Treasure in January at Gulfstream Park, took down 18 stakes races during an outstanding summer at Saratoga, and moved into November with a win aboard Sierra Leone in the Grade 1, $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar.

Irad Ortiz Jr. has maintained a standard of excellence in racing for an extended period of time and for his accomplishments in the last year finds himself bidding for a sixth Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding jockey.

Ortiz is a finalist for 2024 after a season in which he led all North American-based riders in wins with 327 from 1,549 starts. It was a dominant display, as he finished 51 wins clear of the second-leading rider in wins in 2024.

Moira won the first Grade 1 race of her remarkable career at the most advantageous time – in front of a world audience in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar on the first Saturday of November.

The Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf was familiar territory for Moira. She was fifth in the race in 2022 at Keeneland and third in 2023 at Santa Anita.

The win at Del Mar has led to being named a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the outstanding turf female of 2024.

Tyler Gaffalione again is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding jockey after a 2024 season in which he finished third in both mount earnings and graded stakes victories in North America.

His season also was highlighted by seven Grade 1 wins – tied for second on the year among all jockeys.

Gaffalione, who is a 29-year-old native of Florida, won 250 races from 1,477 starts last year to rank sixth in wins in North America. His mounts earned $28,987,644, and he compiled 23 graded stakes victories.

It seems improbable that Ways and Means only scored her first stakes win in the Grade 1 Test Stakes, in August 2024 at Saratoga. The filly was so well regarded for so long. But that gratifying win became one of a pair of graded stakes scores last season, along with some gallant efforts in defeat, which helped make the 3-year-old filly a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding female sprinter.

The high-class Society is that rare Thoroughbred – a Grade 1 winner around both one turn and two, and as a 3-year-old and an older mare. A dominant win in one of the biggest annual female sprint races of the season, and a narrow defeat at the Breeders’ Cup, have made the multimillionaire a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding female sprinter.