The American Award for Horse of the Year, one of the

Eclipse Award The Eclipse Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th-century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. An Eclipse Award Trophy is presented to the winner in each division that is made by a few small selected American ...

s, is the highest honor given in American

thoroughbred horse racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in ...

. Because Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States has no

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

to sanction the various awards, "Horse of the Year" is not an official national award. The Champion award is a designation given to a horse, irrespective of age, whose performance during the racing year was deemed the most outstanding. The list below is a Champion's history compilation beginning with the year 1887 published by the

Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association {{short description, Organization for Thoroughbred racehorse owners and breeders The American Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) based in Lexington, Kentucky is a trade organization for Thoroughbred racehorse owners and breeder ...

's ''

The Blood-Horse ''BloodHorse'' is a multimedia news organization covering Thoroughbred racing and breeding that started with a newsletter first published in 1916 as a monthly bulletin put out by the Thoroughbred Horse Association.

'' magazine (founded 1961), described by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

as "the Thoroughbred industry's most-respected trade publication". In 1936 a Horse of the Year award was created by a poll of the staff of '' The New York Morning Telegraph'' and its sister newspaper, the ''

Daily Racing Form The ''Daily Racing Form'' (DRF) (referred to as the ''Racing Form'' or "Form" and sometimes "telegraph" or "telly") is a tabloid newspaper founded in 1894 in Chicago, Illinois, by Frank Brunell. The paper publishes the past performances of raceh ...

'' (DRF), a tabloid founded in 1894 that was focused on statistical information for bettors. At the same time a rival poll was organised by the

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

-based ''Turf and Sport Digest'' magazine. Formed in 1942 as an advocacy group, the Thoroughbred Racing Associations (TRA) inaugurated a competing award in 1950, selecting its winners from votes by racing secretaries from member tracks across the United States. The three systems resulted in different opinions as to "Horse of the Year" Champions in 1949, 1952, 1957, 1965, and 1970. In 1971, the DRF and TRA made an agreement with the

National Turf Writers Association The National Turf Writers Association (NTWA) is an American association of journalists, columnists and other writers involved with reporting on the horse racing industry. The organization was founded by prominent sports writer Joe Hirsch who served ...

to merge into one set of awards, called the

Historical notes on winners

In a rare occurrence, two two-year-olds topped the balloting for 1972 American Horse of the Year honors with

Secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who is the ninth winner of the Ame ...

edging out the filly,

La Prevoyante La Prevoyante (1970–1974) was a Canadian-bred thoroughbred race horse elected to the Racing Halls of Fame in the United States and Canada. Background La Prevoyante was bred and owned by Jean-Louis Lévesque. Her sire was Buckpasser, a son ...

. Secretariat received the votes of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America and the ''Daily Racing Form'', while La Prevoyante was chosen by the National Turf Writers Associatio

Kelso (horse), Kelso, who placed 4th in ''

'' magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, won "Horse of the Year" honors five consecutive years. Omaha is the only winner of the U.S. Triple Crown that was not voted "Horse of the Year" honors.

Records

Most wins: * 5 – Kelso (horse), Kelso (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964) Most wins by a trainer: * 8 – James G. Rowe Sr. (1896, 1900, 1901, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1913, 1915) Most wins by an owner: * 6 – Calumet Farm (1941, 1942, 1944, 1947, 1948, 1949)

Honorees

Eclipse Awards

The 2003 Eclipse Awards marked a significant change in the way that honors were decided. Under this format, voting is conducted by selected members of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (formerly National Turf Writers Association). The winner of the Eclipse Award for American Horse of the Year is the horse who has received the most first-place votes. The 2002 Eclipse Awards were the last conducted under a voting bloc system, in which each of the three voting groups could only cast a single collective vote based on the polling of that group's members. In the event of an overall split vote, the award would go to the horse who had received the most points - each group's vote awarded ten points for first place, five points for second place, and one point for third place. In the event that there was a tie on points, the award would go to the horse who had received the most individual first-place votes.

Daily Racing Form, Turf & Sport Digest and Thoroughbred Racing Association Awards

Daily Racing Form and Turf & Sport Digest Awards

''The Blood-Horse'' retrospective champions

References

{{short description, Award for American racehorses Horse racing awards Horse racing in the United States American horse racing awards American Champion racehorses 1936 establishments in New York (state)