January 9, 2025
LOUISIANA – By Ed DeRosa
The “Horse of the Year” race will not be much of a race once the announcement is made and vote totals are known. Thorpedo Anna will win by a Secretariat-like margin and be 2024 Horse of the Year on the strength of five Grade 1 wins punctuated by trouncing older fillies and mares in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
From the standpoint of having a sustained Grade 1 campaign throughout the year that captured the imagination of hard-boots, serious horseplayers, and casual fans, Thorpedo Anna’s connections are worthy winners of the gold statue, but I went in a different direction. Here are my top 5 Horse of the Year candidates.
#5 NEXT
This spot was a mental tussle between two specialists, as I considered turf sprinting wunderkind Cogburn as well, but sided with marathoner Next because if he had won the Breeders’ Cup Classic then he would have been Horse of the Year for sure. He didn’t obviously, but his four-for-four record by a combined 52 ¾ lengths before the Classic flop (last of 14) was enough to put him in the Horse of the Year conversation with a Classic win that never came.
#4 REBEL’S ROMANCE
Horse of the Year is usually a balance between accomplishment, pure talent, and emotion. Rebel’s Romance accomplished winning four Group 1 races in four different countries including the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Talent wise he globe trotted to take on all comers and led an all-world trifecta in the Turf (the closest North America-based horse, the Irish-bred Gold Phoenix was fourth, beaten about two lengths. The next closest was Far Bridge, 22 ½ lengths back in ninth. Emotion wise… bupkis. Most voters don’t appreciate the one-start-in-North-America types. It doesn’t bother me, but Horse of the Year is a bridge too far. Rebel’s Romance may have been the best horse to race in North America in 2024, but he only did it once.
#3 FIERCENESS
Fierceness’s quest to add to triple his Eclipse Award collection came up 1 ½ lengths short when Sierra Leone surged past him to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and champion two-year-old male was in the driver’s seat for Horse of the Year and champion three-year-old male Eclipses with a Classic win, and though his effort was super impressive, it was not good enough to win. It is a tough beat for a horse whose backers have a decent claim to being the most talented of this crop–he defeated likely Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna in the Travers Stakes after all–but the loss in the Classic weighs heavy on me.
#2 THORPEDO ANNA
The brightest star doesn’t burn hottest, and while Thorpedo Anna was undeniably racing’s biggest name in 2024 the brass tacks for me is that she never beat males, and that is a non negotiable variable for me when voting a female horse as Horse of the Year. People will say she beat males in the Travers by virtue of finishing second and having six males behind her, but if she had finished sixth would we be saying she beat males? Of course not. Now, she didn’t finish sixth, but you have to draw the line somewhere, and I draw it where it matters most: beneath the “1” of the first-place finisher. The Travers was awesome and her connections deserve all the praise for taking a shot, and they got their flowers via several other industry awards that honor that sort of gamesmanship.
#1 SIERRA LEONE
Look, not all Horses of the Year are the same. Sierra Leone did not have the type of campaign that is going to evoke Cigar or won in such ways that make people think of Ghostzapper, but he did have the best campaign of 2024 by virtue of his Breeders’ Cup Classic win against all comers that included an all-three-year-old (and Kentucky Derby starter) trifecta to illustrate just how deep that division (and race) was in 2024. On paper, both Fierceness and Sierra Leone won a pair of Grade 1 races each: a Kentucky Derby prep (Florida Derby and Blue Grass Stakes, respectively) plus a summer-fall race (Travers and Classic, respectively). I favor the Classic because it came against older horses.
To reiterate, I voted for Sierra Leone, but Thorpedo Anna will win for 2024. I take the time to type out the year because all five of these horses are expected to race in 2025, and I am very much looking forward to them settling it on the track.