Eclipse Awards
By Arnab, Gaea News NetworkTuesday, January 19, 2010
CALIFORNIA (GaeaTimes.com)- The 2010 annual Eclipse Awards was full of turns and twists for the horse racing aficionados. The awards ceremony was held in California’s Beverly Hills. The Mare that stood out among all the other contenders was Rachel Alexandra. She won the award for the thoroughbred racing’s Horse of the Year for North America. Everyone expected Zenyatta to win the award though. However, Zenyatta, the 5 year old mare could not come close to Rachel Alexandra’s 130 votes. Zenyatta got only 99 votes out of 232. The battle of Rachel Alexandra with unbeaten and popular choice Zenyatta added spice to the awards ceremony to an extent.
Rachel Alexandra is an amazingly powerful mare who spent a lot of time in the previous year in stables. She beat male horses thrice and earned an amount of $2,948,354. Not only she was selected as the Horse of the Year but Rachel Alexandra also walked away with the award of the filly champion. However, there were some people who thought that Zenyatta will win. The owner of the mare, Jess Jackson and his spouse Barbara Banke, were overwhelmed with pride and emotion. The 2010 annual eclipse Awards was truly an eventful ceremony.
Steve Asmussen, the trainer of champion mare Rachel Alexandra got the outstanding trainer award for the second time. The 2010 annual eclipse Awards also brought good news for Julien Leparoux who won the award for outstanding jockey. The owner of Zenyatta Jerry Moss declared that the mare will take part in races in 2010 though she is 6 years old now.
