Bill Mott last won an Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding trainer in 2011 and has not been a finalist for the award since 2013. While the Hall of Fame trainer has done just fine over the last decade, Mott is once again in the running for a championship as are three of his horses as the finalists for the 2023 Eclipse Awards in 11 equine and five human categories were announced Saturday. The award winners will be announced and presented on Jan. 25 at a black-tie ceremony held at The Breakers Palm Beach, a luxury resort in Palm Beach, Fla. The Horse of the Year finalists will be announced during the course of that ceremony. The Eclipse Awards are voted on by members of Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Out of 250 eligible voters, 219 ballots were returned, according to the NTRA. Finalists are determined based on the top three vote-getters in each division. Horses accrue points on a 10-5-1 basis for a first-, second- or third-place vote. Champions are determined based solely on first-place votes.  Mott, a three-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer, has the potential to have three champions in Cody’s Wish, Elite Power, and Just F Y I, all of whom won Breeders’ Cup races in 2023 – Cody’s Wish and Elite Power doing so for a second straight year – and all of whom are Eclipse finalists in their respective divisions. Mott, 70, ranked only fifth among trainers in purse-money won (a personal-best $17,437,147), but 30 of his 103 wins came in stakes, 24 of which were graded. He won 10 Grade 1 stakes, tying him for third in that category with Todd Pletcher, the eight-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer who did not make it as a finalist in 2023. Mott, who won the Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer in 1995, 1996, and 2011, is a finalist in the trainer category along with Brad Cox, the Eclipse Award-winning-trainer in 2020 and 2021, and Chad Brown, the four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer from 2016-19. Cox led all trainers in purse-money won ($30.9 million) and stakes wins (66) and was third in graded stakes wins (30). He and Brown tied for the most Grade 1 stakes wins with 12. Brown ranked fourth in purse-money won ($25.7 million) but led all trainers in graded stakes wins (39) and was second with 62 stakes wins. :: Full list of 2023 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories Cody’s Wish, who went 4 for 5 in 2023 with three Grade 1 stakes victories including the Metropolitan Handicap and a second straight Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, and Elite Power, who went 4 for 5 with Grade 1 victories in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt and Breeders’ Cup Sprint, are finalists in both the older dirt male and male sprint categories. Joining those two in the older dirt mile division is White Abarrio, who won the Breeders’ Cup Classic after defeating Cody’s Wish in the Grade 1 Whitney in August. Cody’s Wish and Elite Power are joined in the male sprint category by Gunite, who ran second to Elite Power three times but who beat that rival in the Grade 1 Forego. Just F Y I gives Mott a third Eclipse finalist, this one in the 2-year-old filly division. Just F Y I went 3 for 3 in 2023, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and the Grade 1 Frizette. She is joined as a finalist by undefeated Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Hard to Justify and Grade 1 winner Candied. Hard to Justify is trained by Brown, who also has finalists in the female sprint category with defending female sprint champion Goodnight Olive and female turf division with In Italian. Goodnight Olive won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint for a second straight year as part of a 3-for-5 campaign that included a victory in the Grade 1 Madison. She is joined as a finalist for female sprinter by Echo Zulu, who went 3 for 3 but was injured before the Breeders’ Cup, and Maple Leaf Mel, who won her first starts in 2023 before sustaining a fatal injury yards away from winning the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga. Goodnight Olive also is a finalist in the older dirt female division, where Idiomatic, with an 8-for-9 record including a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, is the favorite for the award. Clairiere, a two-time Grade 1 winner in 2023, is the other finalist in this category. Pretty Mischievous, who won the Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, and Test, heads the finalists in the 3-year-old filly division. Randomized, the Grade 1 Alabama, Grade 2 Beldame winner, and BC Distaff runner-up; and Mawj, the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup winner and nose loser in the Breeders’ Cup Mile; are the other 3-year-old filly finalists. Pretty Mischievous and Mawj – as well as Cody’s Wish and male turf finalist Master of The Seas – are owned and bred by Godolphin Racing. Godolphin is a finalist for outstanding owner and outstanding breeder, awards it has respectively won three and two years straight. Godolphin is in the running for leading owner with Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stable and Juddmonte. Mike Repole, who in partnership or by himself, won six Grade 1 stakes and was among the leaders in purse-money won, was not a finalist in the owner category. The other finalists in the breeder category are Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings and Calumet Farm. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Arcangelo, winner of the Belmont Stakes and Travers, is no surprise as a finalist for 3-year-old male. His fellow finalists include Mage, the Kentucky Derby winner and Haskell runner-up; and Auguste Rodin, the Breeders’ Cup Turf winner in his lone North American start. Not among the finalists in this division were Forte, who twice beat Mage, including in the Grade 1 Florida Derby; Arabian Knight, the Grade 1 Pacific Classic winner and Grade 3 Southwest Stakes winner; or Geaux Rocket Ride, who beat Mage in the Grade 1 Haskell and was second to Arabian Knight in the Pacific Classic before sustaining a fatal injury training for the Breeders’ Cup. Arabian Knight and Geaux Rocket Ride were among several Southern California-based horses who did not make it as Eclipse finalists. That list includes Adare Manor, a four-time graded stakes winner in the older female dirt division; Anisette, a two-time Grade 1 winner in the female turf division; and Ceiling Crusher, a multiple graded stakes winner in the 3-year-old filly division. In fact, Muth is the only Southern California-based horse to make it as a finalist, doing so in the 2-year-old male division. A Grade 1 winner, Muth will likely finish behind Fierceness, who beat Muth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Locked, like Fierceness, trained by Todd Pletcher, is the other finalist in that division. Pletcher has another Eclipse finalist in Up to the Mark, a three-time Grade 1 winner, in the competitive male turf division. Up to the Mark was beaten three-quarters of a length in the Breeders’ Cup Turf by Auguste Rodin, who is a finalist in the male turf as well as 3-year-old male division. Master of The Seas, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile and Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, is the third finalist in the male turf division. Inspiral, like Auguste Rodin, made just one start in North America. Her neck victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf earned her a spot as finalist in the female turf division, perhaps the most competitive of all the equine divisions. Joining Inspiral as finalists are two-time Grade 1 winner In Italian and Mawj. Irad Ortiz Jr., a four-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey, heads the group of finalists in this category along with Tyler Gaffalione and Flavien Prat, the top three leaders in purse-money won. Ortiz’s $39.1 million established an earnings record. Javier Castellano, a four-time Eclipse Award winner who won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes on different horses, did not make it as a finalist. Axel Concepcion, Jaime Torres, and Sofia Vives were named finalists in the apprentice jockey category. Awakened, Merry Maker, and Snap Decision are the finalists for the steeplechase Eclipse Award. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? 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