The American Award for Horse of the Year, one of the Eclipse Awards, is the highest honor given in American thoroughbred horse racing. Because Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States has no governing body 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'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%). The ...

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'' (DRF), a

tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid The Sopwith Tabloid an ...

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 most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

-based ''Turf and Sport Digest'' magazine. Formed in 1942 as an

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the develop ...

, 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 to merge into one set of awards, called the Eclipse Awards.

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 edging out the

filly A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare. There are two specific definitions in use: *In most cases, a ''filly'' is a female horse under four years old. *In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, t ...

, La Prevoyante. 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 Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...

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. James Gordon Rowe Sr. (1857 – August 2, 1929) was an American jockey and horse trainer elected to the Hall of Fame for Thoroughbred Horse racing. He won the Belmont Stakes twice as a jockey and 8 times as a trainer. He had 34 champion horses t ...

(1896, 1900, 1901, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1913, 1915) Most wins by an owner: * 6 –

Calumet Farm Calumet Farm is a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm established in 1924 in Lexington, Kentucky, United States by William Monroe Wright, founding owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Company. Calumet is located in the heart of the Bluegras ...

(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)