Watching the 54th Eclipse Awards ceremony from afar, having just turned the news from another brush fire that flamed and flared out down the road near San Diego, this viewer was baffled once again as to why everyone involved in the FanDuel broadcast was in such a rush. Is the after party that swell? Was there a 10 p.m. curfew in Palm Beach? Were Secret Service involved?
Time spent with co-hosts Britney Eurton and Lindsay Czarniak should never be hurried. Both experienced sports broadcasters and presenters, they bring to the Eclipse Awards program a smart mix of easy listening and thorough preparation.
Right off the bat, though, Eurton said she hoped that the show would be reviewed with what she termed the ultimate compliment: "God, that was so fast." As a result, basic stagecraft suffered from the race against the clock. Many times, the hosts would begin their next comments before the deck was cleared of the previous winning group. Eurton and Czarniak sometimes tore through scripted remarks as if reciting pharmaceutical disclaimers. Several presenters appeared magically on stage before they were even introduced.
Czarniak, in the role of the stylish substitute teacher, set the disciplined tone early when she gave the crowd a stern "shhhh" directed toward noise at the back of the room in the wake of the award for FanDuel Racing-National Thoroughbred Racing Association Moment of the Year, as Michael Behrens of MyRacehorse left the stage.
"We've got to keep them in line," Czarniak said in an aside to her co-host.
Harsh mistress.
The Moment of the Year went to the 2024 Preakness Stakes (G1), won by Seize the Grey and his 2,588 MyRacehorse owners in what could be considered an aesthetic upset over the Donnybrook in the Travers Stakes (G1) between Fierceness and Thorpedo Anna and the momentous, three-way photo at the end of the Kentucky Derby (G1) among Mystik Dan, Sierra Leone, and Forever Young. No totals were announced, although it's a fair guess the winning moment received at least 2,588 votes.
Throughout the evening, Czarniak tried hard in her prepared remarks to inject cross cultural references into the hermetically sealed racing world represented in the room. She thought "Older Dirt Female" would make a good title for a Taylor Swift song, and made allusions to Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, country singer Eric Church, and some guy named Michelangelo, who many mistook for the winner of the 2023 Belmont Stakes (G1).
Her efforts were gratefully received, if only because they broke up the litany of thank-you shopping lists delivered by the night's winners that reduced the proceedings to one long series of name checks. It is understandable at that grand moment to feel gratitude, but time on any stage is precious, and a few diversions toward more creative comments would be appreciated by any audience.
There was a sprinkling of small favors. Garrett O'Rourke handled the Eclipse trophy for Idiomatic and wondered if they might have provided a bigger one in honor of the massive mare, whose emergence as a two-time champion was a matter of finding "the swan in the ugly duckling."
Presenter Lonny Powell of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association offered the childhood image of a trip with a pack of Cub Scouts to the Santa Anita Park jocks' room, where Bill Shoemaker draped an arm over his shoulder and made them feel special. And what was not to admire in Erik Asmussen, the Joseph O'Brien of American racing, who made the most of his apprentice season to win the same Eclipse won by his uncle, Cash Asmussen, in 1979. Erik is a tall lad, so his riding days might be numbered. But with Hall of Fame father Steve in his corner, many of those days should be very bright.
In his heartfelt acceptance, Asmussen thanked everyone from his God to the racetrack custodians, covering all the bases. Flavien Prat, winning his first Eclipse, made sure to mention a core of important people from his past, including French trainer Tony Clout, American trainers Richard Mandella and Leonard Powell, and Derek Lawson, Prat's first California agent. Mike Gillum, honored as Horseplayer of the Year, told the audience that "life can be short and sometimes hard," and playing the ponies made it all worthwhile.
In 1979, former state trooper James "Ted" Bassett III was running the Keeneland Association with a velvet glove, Ed Bowen was managing editor of The Blood-Horse magazine, and Peter Brant was celebrating the season of his first champion, the French mare Waya.
Bowen, 82, died Jan. 20 after a lifelong career as a racing journalist and historian. Bassett, who made it to 103, passed away the morning of Jan. 23. That evening, Brant stepped to the stage to accept another Eclipse Award, this time as part of the group that owns 3-year-old champion male Sierra Leone. Brant offered the obligatory round of thank-you's, punctuated as the group left the stage by a full-throated "wahoo-boom!" from partner Brook Smith of Rocket Ship Racing.
That great swath of blue decorating the telecast came courtesy of Godolphin, who sent a four-man relay team of Michael Banahan, Danny Mulvihill, Johnny Burke, and Darren Fox to the stage, each in splendid isolation, to accept trophies for champion 2-year-old filly Immersive, outstanding breeder, outstanding owner, and champion turf male Rebel's Romance.
Otherwise, the trend toward megapartnerships came to vivid life during the evening, as a procession of award-winning groups packed the cramped stage at The Breakers with owners and their families.
There were a dozen folks flanking Donato Lanni accepting for Ontario-bred Moira, the 2022 Canadian Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly, and another 13 for Soul of an Angel, although it was too bad principal owner Mark Cornett was not among them. It was probably lucky that only 14 were up there for Straight No Chaser, since the male sprint champ has 953 MyRacehorse owners, while National Treasure 's award drew a squad of 16. The Thorpedo Anna party of 19 topped them all.
The telecast was able to offer a few winks to the fact that so many of the winners were a foregone conclusion. The person who opened the envelope for champion steeplechase horse Snap Decision was Jenna Elliott, who was in the house as the winner of the Resolute Racing Eclipse Awards Sweepstakes, and who just happened to be Snap Decision's groom. After his comments, Erik Asmussen was asked to linger onstage while he watched a prerecorded message from his Uncle Cash. And to close the show, there was Thorpedo Anna at her stall, torturing a golden Horse of the Year statuette on a hay bale until, to her delight, it fell to the ground.
The daughter of Fast Anna certainly ranks as one of the most popular Thoroughbreds to win the ultimate honor. Her legacy goes back not only to fellow 3-year-old Rachel Alexandra, Horse of the Year in 2009, but also to fillies like Regret, Busher, Honeymoon, Rags to Riches, and Winning Colors, who stepped out of their comfort zones to create the kind of racing memories nourished by leaders like Bassett and recorded by writers like Bowen.
Watching Thorpedo Anna soar against her own kind, terrify one of the best colts in training, and then manhandle her elders provided a season of ceaseless joy. The fact that she is hungry and looking for more gives 2025 a reason for hope, along with a chance to borrow from the Eclipse telecast playbook and proclaim at the end of the day, "God, she was so fast."
