ECLIPSE AWARDS HELD IN FLORIDA-BRICKS AND MORTAR TAKES HORSE OF THE YEAR

The latest Eclipse Awards held in Florida came out exactly as expected when the brilliant BRICKS AND MORTAR captured Horse of the Year honors. The Chad Brown charge was unbeaten in six starts in 2019 and surprisingly only got 204 votes out of a possible 241. Mitole came in second with 19 votes, Maximum Security received 14 and others with votes were Midnight Bisou, Vino Rosso and Omaha Beach.

The winner is a son of Giant’s Causeway and his 2019 victories included the Pegasus Turf Cup, Arlington Million, Breeders Cup Turf and the Manhattan Stakes. Regrettably and understandably the horse has now retired, but those lucky enough to have seen him run live will never forget the rather cheeky and contemptuous manner in which he dispatched his opponents.

Connections of the horse all won awards with Chad Brown deservedly taking the trainer award and Irad Ortiz who rode the champion in all his wins last year capturing the Outstanding Jockey title. The owners of the horse are Klaravich Stables and they won the Outstanding Owner title. Even the breeder of the horse George Strawbridge Jr picked up the Breeder’s Award so it was a clean sweep for the entire team.

In a rather ironic twist MAXIMUM SECURITY captured the Champion 3-Year Old Male Award after being robbed of victory in the Kentucky Derby with a shameful disqualification. He won the Haskell, Cigar Mile and the Bold Ruler Stakes in the latter part of the year so this award was wall deserved despite that blemish on his record.

MITOLE did win the Male Sprinter Award after racking up six victories last year topped off with a scintillating victory at the Breeders Cup, and VINO ROSSO had no trouble taking the older dirt male category following his sparkling win in the Breeder’s Cup Classic. STORM THE COURT took the Two-Year-Old Male award with 147 votes, and BRITISH IDIOM was a convincing winner in the Two-Year-Old Filly division with 222 votes.

The whole event which is now in its 49^th year was sponsored by the media savvy stallion RUNHAPPY who seems to be the equine version of the Kardashians when it comes to free publicity. The event was held at Gulfstream Park as a prelude to the scaled down Pegasus Gold Cup.