Let's talk about the Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer of 2023. Sure, most of the ballots already have been cast, although the deadline is not until 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Jan. 3. But let's talk about the Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer anyway.
The contenders are usually obvious, and 2023 is no different. Brad Cox won another money title, followed by Steve Asmussen, Todd Pletcher, and Chad Brown. It has been the same four the past three years, and four of the last five. Combined, their stables banked $110 million this year.
Clearly, when it comes to recent voting trends, money talks and subjective analysis walks. Of the 23 Eclipse-winning trainers of the 21st century, only six did not top the money table, and one of those—Bob Baffert—was honored for training the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years.
Then again, even such a monumental achievement is no guarantee. Justify gave Baffert a second Triple Crown in 2018, but by then I guess it was considered old hat. Money leader Chad Brown took the trophy instead. In fact, only two of the trainers responsible for the five Triple Crown winners during the Eclipse Award era received the ultimate honor. Lucien Laurin, the man in Secretariat's corner, lost the 1973 Eclipse title to H. Allen Jerkens, who beat Secretariat twice with two different horses. And Billy Turner, who ushered Seattle Slew through the 1977 Triple Crown while undefeated, was defeated in Eclipse balloting by money leader Lazaro Barrera.
In each case, the Triple Crown winner himself was accorded the honor of Horse of the Year. It follows, sort of, that any trainer who can craft a Horse of the Year campaign deserves to be in the thick of any Eclipse Awards contention. Then again, maybe not—at least according to the voters. In 52 years, only 16 Horse of the Year trainers have stood alongside their ultimate champion with an Eclipse Award of their own. Pletcher, on the other hand, leads all trainers with eight Eclipse Awards and has yet to train a Horse of the Year.
Compared to recent voting trends that lean heavily on the final trainer standings, the early history of Eclipse-winning trainers reads like a schizophrenic's day runner. Six different trainers won the first six awards, and only one of them—Charlie Whittingham—topped the money-winning list. Steve DiMauro, the winner in 1975, finished seventh on the earnings side of the ledger but trained two champions. In 1976, Jack Van Berg led all trainers in money and winners, but not at the ballot box. The trophy went to Lazaro Barrera, trainer of Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Bold Forbes.
Do personalities play a part? Maybe. Dale Romans and Carl Nafzger, both genial to a fault, never came close to topping the standings but were rewarded for career years with Eclipse Awards, as was the respected veteran Sherrill Ward for his work with 1974 Horse of the Year Forego. D. Wayne Lukas, on the other hand, won 14 national money titles during a 15-year heyday at the top of the game, but in only four of those years did he win the Eclipse Award. Whether or not his contempt for the racing press at the time had anything to do with it ... we report, you decide.
Bill Mott won two of the Eclipse Awards during the Lukas era on the strength of back-to-back Horse of the Year campaigns with Cigar. Mott won another Eclipse in 2011 when he trained 3-year-old filly champion Royal Delta, Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) winner Drosselmeyer, and eight other graded stakes winners. The vote was close—Mott got 83 votes to Baffert's 60 and Pletcher's 57—but the result was a refreshing change from the previous 10 years, during which voters failed to venture beyond the name at the top of the earnings list.
Now Mott has given Eclipse voters another reason to put his name in post No. 1 on the ballot, especially for those not irrevocably tied to sheer quantity over discerning quality.
In 2023 Mott turned 70, replaced a hip joint, and celebrated a quarter of a century in the Hall of Fame with his best season ever in terms of purse winnings. His $17.2 million ranked fifth behind the Big Four, accumulated in large part by no less than three likely champions in 2-year-old filly Just F Y I, male sprinter Elite Power , and older dirt male Cody's Wish . Both Cody's Wish and Elite Power also have been in the conversation for Horse of the Year.
In terms of deserving an Eclipse Award, the story should end right there. But there remains the inescapable fact that the family of Bill and Tina Mott has soldiered on through the last several months of his landmark season with hearts weighed heavily by the illness of their granddaughter, Margot. The sport has rallied in spirit to the support of her parents, Riley and Megan Mott, after Margot turned 2 last September and was greeted with a diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor. She received the best possible care and treatment during a long stay at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., but there was only so much they could do.
"She's at home now," Bill Mott said this week from Florida. "They sent her home. So it's the same as you'd call hospice care. No more surgeries, no more chemo. At this point it's kind of day to day. We don't know which way it's going to go, but it doesn't look good."
Riley Mott just finished his first full year as a trainer after several years at his father's side. Between his daughter's ordeal in Tennessee and running public stables in Arkansas and Florida, he has been constantly on the move.
"Riley and Megan are doing a wonderful job," Bill said. "They're showing a lot of strength and courage. It's been tough on everybody, and we all have our moments. It's hard to watch when it's somebody that age. It's just not supposed to be that way."
So the calendar will turn this weekend and a new year commence to unfold. Bill Mott has high hopes for Just F Y I and a collection of budding young talent to go along with veterans Casa Creed and War Like Goddess. There is no replacing Cody's Wish or Elite Power, but that does not mean Mott won't try.
As for Riley Mott, stable earnings of more than $1.5 million for a rookie season is something to shout about, even though numbers add up to nothing in the face of Margot's battle to live. Still, if karma is paying any attention at all, no one would complain if the barn can pull off a mild upset of the $125,000 Rampart Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Saturday with the star, so far, of the Riley Mott string. His name is Unifying.
