Identifying sprint champions this year will be challenging enough
for Eclipse Award voters. Picking three finalists in the male and female categories
will not be easy, either.

No fewer than 15 sprinters have won a Grade 1 stakes in
2024. Not at least one. Just one. Top-level victories often are the difference between
honored champions and unrequited finalists. This year they are more like tie makers
than breakers.

Santa Anita offers the Malibu (G1) and La Brea (G1) on Thursday.
While they may help the championship cases of the winners, they will not clinch
racing Heismans for anyone.

Shown alphabetically, these are the cases for and against the
horses who appear to be the top contenders in each division.

Male sprinter

Cogburn

Pluses: The Jaipur (G1) was the wow moment for this 5-year-old
trained by Steve Asmussen. Cogburn’s 59.80-second dash around 5 1/2 furlongs of
Saratoga turf set a world record and produced the year’s best Beyer Speed
Figure of 114, according to Daily Racing Form. That triumph for owners
Clark Brewster and Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt was bookended by Grade 2 wins
at Churchill Downs and Kentucky Downs that also yielded top-five Beyers.

Minuses: Cogburn looked like a winner in the Breeders’ Cup
Turf Sprint. If only the wire had come 50 yards sooner. Fading from first to
fifth as a 4-5 favorite was tough enough, but a bigger problem is that no turf
specialist in the four-decade Breeders’ Cup era has been named male sprint
champion.

Mullikin

Pluses: Before the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, there was a lot to
praise and little to fault this year with Mullikin. His four wins in as many
starts came by a combined 16 1/4 lengths for trainer Rodolphe Brisset, an
impressive feat for the 4-year-old Violence colt owned by Siena and WinStar
farms. His two graded scores included a 5 3/4-length runaway in the Forego
(G1).

Minuses: A third-place result as the 3-1 favorite in the
Breeders’ Cup blemished Mullikin’s sprint performances. A subsequent second-place
finish to Locked in this month’s one-turn Cigar Mile (G2) is a contentious
point in this category, but the defeat at Del Mar may have left the bigger
scar.

Straight No Chaser

Pluses: He won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, reeling in
Bentornato in the stretch to deliver as the 6-1 fourth choice in the division’s
most important race. Trained by Dan Blacker, the Speightster horse owned by
MyRacehorse also finished first by 6 1/4 lengths in the Santa Anita Sprint
Championship (G2).

Minuses: With only three starts all year, the body of work
is skimpy. Coming off a nearly one-year break to heal a fetlock injury, he
missed the board in his 5-year-old debut, a fourth-place result in the Runhappy
(G3) at Pimlico.

The Chosen Vron

Pluses: A second consecutive triumph in the Bing Crosby (G1)
ran The Chosen Vron’s winning streak to six for owner-trainer Eric Kruljac.
Five of those wins came this year starting with the San Carlos (G3). Even his
season-ending loss by just a neck to Raging Torrent in the Pat O’Brien (G2) was
rewarded with one of his four triple-digit Beyers this year.

Minuses: The 6-year-old gelding was a vet scratch from the
Breeders’ Cup Sprint. His untimely ankle problem underscored a glaring if
unfair impression that The Chosen Vron is like Gonzaga, a regular-season power who
never wins the big dance. Ten consecutive victories across three seasons in
state-bred races are at once a shiny object and a pejorative asterisk.

The winner of the Malibu (G1)

Pluses: Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Bentornato and Pat O’Brien
winner Raging Torrent each has a Grade 2 win this year. Adding the Malibu on
Thursday would bring the winner to the same level as all the other sprinters with
one Grade 1 triumph each. Recency bias would not hurt, either.

Minuses: Bentornato built much of his 2024 résumé on
restricted stakes. Raging Torrent soured his case by finishing seventh in the
Breeders’ Cup Sprint. There also is the matter that the Malibu is only for
3-year-olds.

Female sprinter

Society

Pluses: In her second start off a 9 1/2-month break, this
Gun Runner mare won by 3 1/4 lengths in the Ballerina Handicap (G1) at
Saratoga. Asmussen trained Society for 10 weeks up to the Breeders’ Cup, where
she dueled Soul of an Angel and finished a close second in the Filly & Mare
Sprint.

Minuses: Society had only three races during her 5-year-old
season for owner Peter Blum. They started in June with a bumpy, third-place
finish trying to defend her 2023 win in the Chicago (G3) at Churchill Downs.

Soul of an Angel

Pluses: She made the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint her
Grade 1 triumph. Since spring, when the 5-year-old was moved to new partners
led by C2 Racing Stable and to trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., stakes wins followed in
a May Grade 2 mile at Aqueduct and a September Grade 3 at Gulfstream Park.

Minuses: The two graded victories for the Atreides mare came
at long odds, suggesting fluky outcomes. Yes, one was a one-turn mile at
Aqueduct. Soul of an Angel was durable with 10 starts, but she had only two
pure sprints.

Sweet Azteca

Pluses: A four-race winning streak included the Great Lady M
(G2) and Rancho Bernardo Handicap (G3) sprints. Pam Ziebarth’s 4-year-old homebred
filly sired by Sharp Azteca earned a 106 Beyer for her five-length win in the
Great Lady M, the best for any female horse going less than a mile on dirt this
year.

Minuses: Trainer Michael McCarthy said Sweet Azteca was
listless in the days before the Breeders’ Cup, so he took her out of
consideration for the Filly & Mare Sprint. That came after she faded to
finish last of four starters when she was the odds-on favorite in the
Chillingworth (G3) at Santa Anita. Her Grade 1 victory came in the Beholder
Mile, the key word being mile.

Vahva

Pluses: A narrow second to the late Alva Starr in the
Madison (G1) was followed by a victory in the Derby City Distaff (G1) and the
Chicago (G3), both times as a favorite at Churchill Downs. The 4-year-old Gun
Runner filly co-owned and trained by Cherie DeVaux had $929,000 in earnings
this year.

Minuses: A flat third at even money in the Ballerina (G1) at
Saratoga and a never-threatening seventh in the Breeders’ Cup prevented Vahva
from cementing her championship case. Going 2-for-2 at Churchill and 0-for-3
elsewhere could be a repellent to voters.

Ways and Means

Pluses: After three route-going losses, Ways and Means was
refocused on sprints. A 2 1/2-length romp through the Saratoga mud in the Test
(G1) and a four-length victory through the Aqueduct slop in the Gallant Bloom
(G2) validated the faith bettors showed in making her odds-on for both.

Minuses: The 3-year-old filly bred and owned by Seth Klarman
would have made it 4-for-4 this year as a favorite and 3-for-3 in sprints had
she not finished fifth in the Breeders’ Cup.

The winner of the La Brea (G1)

Pluses: Kopion and One Magic Philly have enough sprints in
their past performances to make a championship argument with a win Thursday in
this seven-furlong test for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita. Each has a Grade 3
victory to her name this year.

Minuses: One Magic Philly was a non-factor coming home sixth
in the Breeders’ Cup. Kopion has not raced since April, when she lost by 16
lengths finishing fourth in the Santa Anita Oaks (G2). Like the males in the Malibu,
the La Brea does not include older fillies and mares.

Who should win?

I gave up my Eclipse Award vote this year for reasons that
are more boring than compelling. That story can wait for a much slower day. I
did not, however, give up my opinions.

The Chosen Vron was a sweet story, but that does not mean
all those state-bred stakes are worthy of a championship. He would miss my cut
for finalists.

Mullikin and Straight No Chaser have Grade 1 and 2 wins to
their name. Mullikin would hold an edge in that head-to-head matchup because of
his third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Cogburn stands a cut above with his world record in a Grade
1 and his two Grade 2 victories. His Breeders’ Cup flop notwithstanding, he
looks like a champion, even if his pet surface was greener than usual.

By process of elimination in the female division, Sweet Azteca
is out for having gone a mile for her Grade 1 win. Soul of an Angel won twice
when she was focused on sprints, but that is a thin case. Ways and Means won a
Grade 1 and a Grade 2 but came in fifth in the Breeders’ Cup, so she merits
consideration as a finalist. The same goes for Society, whose top-level win was
augmented when she hit the board twice in graded stakes.

That leaves Vahva. She won a Grade 1, finished second and third
in two others and had a Grade 3 victory. Much like Sierra Leone deserves added
consideration for how many times he was in the money in the 3-year-old male
category, Vahva should get the same respect among female sprinters.

If there were betting available for these awards, it would
be best not to single Cogburn and Vahva. Instead, spread wagers would be
prudent across multiple categories. If only.