Cox, Knicks Go lead parade of KY Eclipse winners

(Photo at top: Knicks Go winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic under Joel Rosario. Scott Serio for Breeders’ Cup/Eclipse Sportswire)

Headed by Churchill Downs-based and lifelong Louisvillian Brad Cox, Kentucky horsemen were at the forefront of Thursday evening’s annual Eclipse Awards ceremony. Cox repeated as North America’s outstanding trainer.

The Cox-trained Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Knicks Go was the overwhelming winner for Horse of the Year and Older Dirt Male champion, receiving 228 of 235 ballots cast in voting by the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, Daily Racing Form and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Cox also trained Essential Quality, the Belmont and Travers Stakes winner who beat out the ill-fated Medina Spirit for 3-year-old Male Champion 131-84 in one of the closer votes.

Both horses are now retired to stud, Knicks Go to Taylor Made Farm and Essential Quality to Darley at Jonabell. The latter is the American stallion division of owner Godolphin, Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum’s international racing and breeding empire voted Eclipse Award as outstanding owner and breeder, as well as being the winner of divisional champions Essential Quality and British-based male turf horse Yibir.

Knicks Go ran only once in the commonwealth as a 5-year-old, taking Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Lukas Classic as a stepping stone to his 2 3/4-length in the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar over Medina Spirit, the late Kentucky Derby first-place finisher who faces the possibility over a Derby disqualification over a medication infraction. (If that would happen, the Cox-trained Derby runner-up Mandaloun would be adjudged the winner.) Knicks Go also spent much of the year between races training in Kentucky, including back at Ellis Park while Churchill Downs’ off-season training was closed for construction of a new turf course.

The Maryland-bred Knicks Go started his 2021 season with victory in Gulfstream Park’s $3 million Pegasus World Cup. After a pair of fourths in one-turn races, Knicks Go romped to two-turn victories in Prairie Meadows’ Cornhusker (G3), Saratoga’s Whitney (G1), the Lukas Classic and Breeders’ Cup Classic in his first start at 1 1/4 miles.

The 2021 Horse of the Year spent most of his four racing seasons based in Kentucky, including winning his debut at Ellis Park, taking Keeneland’s Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity and finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs while trained by Lexington-based Ben Colebrook. Knicks Go finished second in the Ellis Park Derby at age 3 in a season in which he had some big efforts but was winless. The Korea Racing Authority subsequently sent Knicks Go to Cox, for whom he won the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland.

Essential Quality won Keeneland’s Grade 2 Blue Grass before finishing fourth by a total of a length in the Kentucky Derby. He finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Other Eclipse champions with strong Kentucky ties:

Older Dirt Female: St. George Stable’s Letruska, who came to the U.S. from Mexico the previous year with trainer Fausto Gutierrez, made Keeneland her home throughout the spring, summer and fall. She won Keeneland’s Grade 1 Spinster and Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Fleur De Lis among her six victories.

Male Sprinter: Kirk and Judy Robison’s 3-year-old Jackie’s Warrior, trained by Steve Asmussen, won Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard. That was his first step toward a championship sprint career after Kentucky Derby plans were ditched following a third-place finish in Oaklawn Park’s Grade 3 Southwest won by Essential Quality. While Jackie’s Warrior finished sixth as the 1-2 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and did not beat older horses, voters were impressed with his brilliance throughout the year, including victory in Saratoga’s Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens by a neck over future Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good.

2-year-old Filly: Unbeaten Echo Zulu won Grade 1 races at Saratoga and Belmont before taking the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar. But she spent a lot of time at Churchill Downs preparing for her racing career with Asmussen, who trains the filly for Kentucky Downs co-owner Ron Winchell and L and N Racing.

3-year-old Filly: While based in New York for trainer Todd Pletcher, Malathaat’s coming-out party was her victory in Keeneland’s Grade 1 Ashland, which she followed with a riveting next triumph in the Kentucky Oaks. She’s owned by Shadwell Stables, whose American operation is headquartered in Lexington.

Jockey: Joel Rosario earned his first Eclipse in a season that included being the record-breaking meet-leader at Kentucky Downs, spending the fall meet at Churchill Downs and riding regularly at Keeneland. He was the regular rider of Knicks Go.

Here is the complete NTRA press release on all the winners, including voting breakdown.