Sovereignty crowned 2025 Horse of the Year

Thursday night’s 55th Eclipse Awards at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, turned out to be a coronation ceremony for Sovereignty. 

Acclaimed as the 2025 Horse of the Year in a landslide, Sovereignty was the nearly unanimous choice for champion three-year-old male after sweeping the Kentucky Derby (G1), Belmont (G1), Jim Dandy (G2), and Travers (G1).

Sovereignty’s connections also scooped up awards. Hall of Famer Bill Mott received his fifth Eclipse as outstanding trainer. Godolphin swept both outstanding owner and breeder awards, the fifth straight year that Sheikh Mohammed’s elite operation turned the double. 

It’s the sixth consecutive owner award, and record-extending eighth overall, for Godolphin, which also campaigned champion turf male Notable Speech. The Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) hero dethroned fellow homebred Rebel’s Romance, who was second in the balloting. 

Japan’s dirt globetrotter Forever Young clinched the older dirt male title in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), while Thorpedo Anna, the 2024 Horse of the Year, did enough over the course of the season to reign as champion older dirt female.

The sprint divisions were contested. Book’em Danno compiled a body of work through the summer to collect the male sprinter award. Shisopicy secured female sprinter honors by defeating older males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1).

She Feels Pretty enjoyed a comfortable margin as champion turf female, and Nitrogen’s surface versatility lifted her to the champion three-year-old filly title.

Ted Noffey was almost unanimous in the two-year-old male division, with Super Corredora the clear selection among two-year-old fillies.

Cool Jet flew away with the steeplechase award. 

Jockey Flavien Prat, a repeat champion, and apprentice Pietro Moran were big-margin winners in their categories.

Dan Piazza, the National Horseplayers Championship winner, earned the Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year. Special Eclipse Awards for career excellence were given to legendary racecaller Trevor Denman and starter Bob Duncan. Turf historian Ed Bowen was posthumously honored with the Award of Merit. 

The media Eclipse winners were also recognized:

Live Television Programming – FOX Sports, “The Belmont Stakes,” Michael Mulvihill, President – Insight & Analytics, June 7, 2025 

Feature Television – FOX Sports, “The Healing Ride,” Michael Mulvihill President – Insight & Analytics, June 7, 2025 

Writing – News/Enterprise – Natalie Voss, Paulick Report - “Doom Scroll: Thoroughbreds, Bail Pens, And Horse Traders,” December 2024 

Writing – Feature/Commentary – Jay Privman, DRF.com and Daily Racing Form, “Lukas Morphed from Caustic to Avuncular,” June 29, 2025

Photography – Skip Dickstein, “Unseated,” The Albany Times-Union and BloodHorse, Aug. 31, 2025 

Multimedia – Augusta Chapman and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics Radio “The Horse is Us: Inside the Horse-Industrial Complex,” Oct. 31, 2025