Pugh: Eclipse Awards 2018 successes and snubs

On a night when controversy could have erupted across several divisions, including Horse of the Year, there was a surprising lack of “snubs” at the 2018 Eclipse Awards. However, while voters did hit the nail on the head in several categories, I think they missed the mark in a few areas.

Here's a rundown of final thoughts on our latest champions.

Good Call: Justify wins Horse of the Year

They got it right. I know all the arguments against Justify -- who can't by now? -- however, the jab against his abbreviated season is precisely why he deserved to win.

Six starts, four states, four tracks, four Grade 1s, fast surfaces, sloppy surfaces, and a Triple Crown in just more than 100 days was unprecedented. As upset as some were by his early retirement, I am so happy that many voters had the appreciation just how historic his season was to vote him Horse of the Year.

Justify broke the Curse of Apollo, over the wettest Kentucky Derby on record. He ran a champion into the ground, while jumping tire tracks and running through the thickest fog the Preakness has ever seen. And then, he bested the Belmont Stakes to become only the second undefeated Triple Crown winner in history.

Accelerate had a great season, even a historic one, but its magnitude was nowhere near what Justify did in that matter of four months.

Snub: Abel Tasman's 34 first-place votes

I agree with the overall outcome of the Older Dirt Female category. However, I believe Abel Tasman was a bit dismissed with Unique Bella receiving 182 first-place votes for a resounding win.

This division deserved to be closer. Unique Bella had her season cut short, but managed to win two Grade 1s. She was only a slip leaving the gate away from a third in the Apple Blossom. However, Abel Tasman also won two Grade 1 races, and they were pretty prestigious ones, too, both requiring the ship to New York.

Sure, Abel Tasman went off form, but after all the traveling she has done over her career, that sort of fatigue is understandable. At her best, she was a force. She deserved more than a paltry 34 votes.

Good Call: Turf division dominated by U.S. runners

I could have seen the Turf Male and Turf Female categories going awry -- that is, to overlook the Americans and go with a couple of Breeders' Cup winners who made just one domestic start. Expert Eye won the Mile and Enable the Turf to both become finalists in their respective categories.

However, Stormy Liberal and Sistercharlie won their respective divisions. Exhale.

The former topped a wide-open division by finishing his season with four straight victories, including a back-to-back score in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint. Stormy Liberal is the first true sprinter to win the Turf Male Eclipse Award. The latter won four Grade 1 races in the United States in 2018, including a victory over European invaders in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. As impressive as Enable was, and as historical as her accomplishment is, giving her the award after one start in this country would have been a travesty after the year Sistercharlie had.

Bad Call: Who voted for Gun Runner?

In an Older Dirt Male division that should have been unanimous for Accelerate, two voters were hanging on to Gun Runner, who raced only once in 2018. Meanwhile, Accelerate won five Grade 1 races, including the Breeders' Cup Classic against the same type of competition Gun Runner faced in his Pegasus World Cup score.

You have to wonder what goes through voters' minds when they make that decision. The sentiment applies also to those who somehow were able to put down names other than Game Winner (Two-Year-Old Male) and Monomoy Girl (Three-Year-Old Filly). At least Justify went down as a unanimous winner of the Three-Year-Old Male division.

Good Call: Unique Bella as champion again

While I’m shocked at her margin of victory, I do agree that Unique Bella is the rightful winner of this award. As mentioned earlier, she won two Grade 1s, and ran like a top-level winner after blowing the break in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park. That day, the race ran over a wet track the California invader doesn't often see.

It's actually the Apple Blossom performance that led me to think Unique Bella was more deserving of this award than Abel Tasman. She went to her belly at the break, losing all early position. She pulled her way into contention and made a bold move around the final turn. In the stretch, it even looked like she would even pull off the win, but her early efforts took a toll. She succumbed to the late rally of Unbridled Mo to finish second. That was her worst finish of the year.

On the other hand, Abel Tasman abruptly, and inexplicably, lost form in her last two start of 2018. We may never know why. But what I do know is that she she didn’t have near the excuses that Unique Bella did in the Apple Blossom.

Bad Call: Marley’s Freedom gets snubbed

Being a winner of five of her last six starts, four of those graded stakes, Marley's Freedom still was apparently did not do enough to win Champion Female Sprinter.

Funny, because the winner, Shamrock Rose, won three of her last four and only two of those were graded stakes.

I consider it a case of lazy voting. Rather than evaluate the full season, voters weighed too heavily who simply won the division's Breeders' Cup race, despite a huge run and close fourth by Marley's Freedom in the Filly & Mare Sprint. She came back the very next month to win a stakes at Aqueduct, shipping across the country again.

Simply, Marley's Freedom put together a better resume. But Shamrock Rose got good at the right time to attract Eclipse attention.