ARCADIA, Calif. – As a championship event, the 2016 Breeders’ Cup delivered, and especially in tremendous renewals of the Classic and Distaff. But while there is some important stakes racing left this year, mainly on Thanksgiving weekend, most of this year’s Eclipse Award divisions were decided by the time “official” went up on the tote board following Saturday’s Classic.

Let’s take a look at the 10 equine Eclipse Award divisions on the flat, and the impact this Breeders’ Cup had on them, with a brief comment on Horse of the Year honors at the end:

“Okay, just one,” Richard Mandella said. “Come on in here.”

It was Friday afternoon and time for Beholder to leave the Mandella barn for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff. It was also the last time Beholder would leave the barn for any race, so feelings were decidedly mixed. There was hard business ahead, with Songbird and Stellar Wind waiting down the road. Beholder’s blue earplugs and black earmuffs were in place. Her engine was starting to rev.

The Breeders’ Cup always has been intended to take the breath away.

In the beginning, it was the money, more purse money than American racing ever had seen before. As it evolved, it was the competition, international in scope, dizzy with intensity. At one point, it became the action and how astounding it was to see just how much people wanted to bet, upward of $150 million over a two-day show.

Long about 4:30 on Friday afternoon, after he has set the feed and neatened up the double-wide stall of a certain chestnut racehorse, Raul Rodriguez will wander over to the Santa Anita Park grandstand in time to watch the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

He won’t be alone. The Distaff could be the most compelling event in the 13-race Breeders’ Cup gallery, which will be spread over two warm and dry Southern California days and feature such international stars as California Chrome, Tepin, Flintshire, and Found.

There was nothing unusual about Bill Mott and John Shirreffs crossing paths near the Shirreffs barn at Santa Anita Park this week. The Breeders’ Cup was in the air, luring marquee trainers like flies to warm honey, and those two are always attracted to the taste of million-dollar races.

The order in which the Breeders’ Cup races ran was rarely tinkered with in the event's early days. Things change, however, and the Breeders’ Cup has evolved. The race order is no longer semi-untouchable.

This is good. The Classic will always be the final race of the event, and should be. But it makes sense to capitalize on the popularity of some of the stellar horses who compete in other Breeders’ Cup races by putting those races in prime spots adjacent to the Classic, when the most eyeballs are watching.

Richard Mandella has a hard time turning loose. Good horses seem to enter his barn and linger. The South American Sandpit hit the Mandella stable as a 3-year-old and left at age 10. Same deal for The Tin Man, who did some of his best work at 9, while the gray mare Bel’s Starlet was a precocious stakes winner at 2 and is still throwing strikes for Mandella as a 7-year-old.

Trainer Kenny Black, once a jockey of considerable renown, will be running a horse in the Breeders’ Cup for the first time on Nov. 5, when he saddles What a View in the $2 million Mile against the best the U.S. and Europe have to offer.

There will be a brief pause while those familiar with the Kenny Black saga come to terms with this information.

What a View belongs in the Mile. The 5-year-old son of the Danzig stallion Vronsky is 5 for 5 on the Santa Anita turf course, including a victory in the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile over a strong field last March.

The Bill Mooney Award for courage in the face of adversity will be presented by the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association when the members gather during Breeders’ Cup week. This year’s honoree is Rene Douglas, the Belmont Stakes-winning jockey who was paralyzed from the waist down in an accident at Arlington Park in 2009.

Last year’s winner was Bill Mooney.

Pre-entries for the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita on Nov. 4 and 5 will be taken Monday, and after the oversubscribed races are dealt with on Tuesday, the pre-entries will be released to all on Wednesday.

I find two aspects to the Breeders’ Cup pre-entry process to be especially interesting. One is the work of the Breeders’ Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries Panel, which determines which horses are relegated to the also-eligible list in oversubscribed races. The other is the concept of cross-entering horses in two different Breeders’ Cup events.