ARCADIA, Calif. — Knicks Go won Horse of the Year and older dirt male horse honors at the Eclipse Awards on Thursday night, and Brad Cox won for the second straight year as best trainer in a ceremony at Santa Anita.
Winner of the Pegasus World Cup and Breeders’ Cup Classic, Knicks Go received 228 out of a possible 235 first-place votes for Horse of the Year. The Maryland-bred gray owned by Korea Racing Authority and trained by Cox won five races in seven starts as a 5-year-old last year.
Knicks Go led all North American horses in total earnings last year with $7,324,140. He was retired to stud after finishing second in last month’s Pegasus World Cup.
Essential Quality, another of Cox’s horses, was named top 3-year-old male. He won the Belmont and Travers stakes in New York, and finished behind Medina Spirit in the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in their only two meetings.
Cox set a North American earnings record for trainers last year with $31,001,731. He won 269 races, including 30 graded stakes.
Embattled trainer Bob Baffert had one win: Corniche as 2-year-old male.
Medina Spirit, winner of last year’s Kentucky Derby and trained by Baffert, was nominated as 3-year-old male. The colt failed a post-race drug test for a substance that is legal but not allowed not race day in Kentucky. As a result, Baffert was suspended by Churchill Downs and isn’t allowed to enter any horses in the Derby this year and in 2023. Medina Spirit died after a workout at Santa Anita on Dec. 6.
In other awards, Echo Zulo won 2-year-old filly; Malathaat won 3-year-old; Ce Ce won female sprinter; Letruska won older dirt female; Jackie’s Warrior won male sprinter; Britain-bred Yibir won male turf horse; Japan-bred Loves Only You won female turf horse; and Ireland-bred The Mean Queen won steeplechase horse.
In the human awards, Godolphin was honored as both owner and breeder, Joel Rosario won as jockey, and Southern Californa-based Jessica Pyfer was chosen apprentice jockey. Pyfer became the third woman to win the honor.
The awards are voted upon by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.