California Chrome beats Arrogate this time, for horse of the year

There is little question that California Chrome is the world’s most popular horse, but on Saturday night he was also named the best horse, winning the Eclipse Award for horse of the year for the second time.

The annual crowning of the best horses in a mind-numbing array of specific categories was held at Gulfstream Park in south Florida a week before Chrome is to run the final race of his career. And much like this coming Saturday’s $12-million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, the Eclipse Award came down to the same two horses — California Chrome and Arrogate.

It was a simple choice. Do you pick the horse with the best full year or the horse with the best last quarter of the year and beat the other horse? The third finalist was Songbird and her 11 straight wins over two years on the filly side were given only passing interest.

Chrome had won six straight races, including the Dubai World Cup, before losing to Arrogate in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Arrogate, after finishing third in his debut race at Los Alamitos, won five of six but only his last two victories were graded stakes. However, Arrogate’s rousing stretch victory over Chrome in the Classic made the horse-of-the-year honor more of a debate.

The electorate, made up of the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., (NTRA), the Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers Assn., decided that the entire year was the tiebreaker. (The Times does not vote in the Eclipse Awards.)

A lot of horses have won multiple horse-of -the-year awards, but Chrome joins John Henry (1981, 1984) as only the second horse to win in non-consecutive years. Chrome won in 2014 when he won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Southern California-based horses won eight Eclipse Awards. Most of those were seemingly pre-determined based on performance.They included:

-- Finest City, who not only won the Eclipse for best female sprinter, but also won Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita by 3¾ lengths. She won the Breeders’ Cup Fillies and Mares Sprint to close out a year in which she won two of eight races but never finished worse than fourth.

-- Drefong, who won best male sprinter, was awarded the Eclipse no doubt based on his win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint after winning five of six races. The voting came down to Drefong and stablemate Lord Nelson. However, Lord Nelson got sick just before the Breeders’ Cup and the expected showdown never occurred.

-- Beholder won the older dirt female title after a close-as-it-comes win in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff over Songbird.

-- California Chrome picking up his first Eclipse of the evening in the older dirt male horse category. Co-owner Perry Martin accepted the award, thanking all the backstretch people.

-- Songbird as 3-year-old filly. She won last year as 2-year-old filly.

-- Arrogate won the 3-year-old male award over two other Santa Anita-based horses— Nyquist, winner of the Kentucky Derby, and Exaggerator, winner of the Preakness Stakes.

-- Champagne Room, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, was awarded the 2-year-old filly award.It was the first Eclipse for trainer Peter Eurton.

Additional awards included:

Classic Empire won as 2-year-old male after winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. The win made him the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby. Nyquist won the award last year.

Chad Brown, considered a turf specialist, won trainer of the year. He was the country’s leading money winner with more than $23 million in earnings. Bob Baffert and Mark Casse were second and third.

Tepin won the female turf horse award for the second straight year, despite finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Her win was likely based on the strength of winning the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Flintshire was the male turf winner and he also finished second in the Breeders’ Cup, this time in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Still his three wins in five starts in 2016 was enough to take the award.

Javier Castellano won his fourth straight jockey-of-the-year Eclipse, tying Jerry Bailey as the only jockey to match that feat. He was North America’s leading money winner. The other finalists were Jose Ortiz and Mike Smith.

Other awards winners were WinStar Farm as breeder of the year; Rawnaq as top steeplechase horse; Luis Ocasio in apprentice jockey and Juddmonte Farms for owner of the year.

John Cherwa reported from Los Angeles.

john.cherwa@latimes.com

Twitter: @jcherwa