Comeback of the Year: Monomoy Girl ran the table in 2020, culminating in her second Breeders’ Cup Distaff victory. The champion three-year-old filly in 2018 missed all of 2019 and somehow returned better than ever, winning four straight before selling for $9.5 million to Spendthrift Farm.

In an era when stars burn out quickly, the daughter of Tapizar is set to return for her six-year-old season.

Comeback II of the Year: Jonathan Sheppard vaulted back to the top of the steeplechase trainer’s list, securing his 26th leading trainer title (races won). The Hall of Famer, 80, engineered 19 winners to oust Jack Fisher as the sport’s leader. Irish-breds Galway Kid and A Silent Player contributed four wins to Sheppard’s coffer.

Ride of the Year: Make it rides of the year. If America hadn’t heard of French marvel, Pierre-Charles Boudot, before the Breeders’ Cup, they certainly had halfway through the Saturday card when the jockey put on two Picasso rides to land the Breeders’ Cup Turf with Audarya and the Breeders’ Cup Mile with Order Of Australia.

They say the key to riding races is to establish your position while going forward. Nobody did it better and on a bigger stage in 2020.

Shame of the Year: High-percentage trainers Jason Servis, Jorge Navarro and other accomplices dragged racing down yet another rung with damning reports of doping in March. Long wondered about, the bombshell that rocked the sport. Is it the nadir? Are more arrests coming? Has it changed anything?

Jockey Club chairman Stuart Janney III promised there would be more arrests from the lengthy FBI investigation. Nothing yet. Waiting for the shoe to drop? This is like waiting for the shoe store to crash.

Horse of the Year: Obviously, Authentic. The three-year-old came to form when it mattered most, winning the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic to finish the season with five wins and two seconds from seven starts. The front-running son of Into Mischief retired with $7.2 million in earnings.

Declaration of the Year: Authentic’s trainer Bob Baffert issued a statement during Breeders’ Cup week after numerous medication positives, including two with top three-year-old filly Gamine, vowing to do better. In a sport desperate to regain respect and creditability, Baffert needs to follow his vow.

Jockey of the Year: Irad Ortiz Jr. continued his dominance, winning more races and more money than any other jockey in 2020.

Now, if he would just tone down his whip hand. So good, it’s the last thing to perfect in his bag full of tools.

Gavel of the Year: Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez continued to ride like a court judge, making decisions with conviction and confidence.

Add his rides on Authentic to the list of game-changing masterpieces over the years. When Manny Franco was thinking atop Tiz The Law in the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup, Velazquez was deciding atop Authentic.

Feat of the Year: The New York Racing Association pulled off the impossible with 40 days of racing at Saratoga. Decision makers were criticized before the meet, questioned during the meet and absolved after the meet.

Drop the Mic Awards: Keith Jones and John Curran. Longtime announcers at Parx and Delaware Park hung up their binoculars after solid careers in the booth. They will be missed.

Winners of the Year: Galerio, Frost Or Frippery, Combination and Greely’s Charm each won eight races on the year to top all horses.

Runners of the Year: Starship Fonzy and In It For Life stayed busy in 2020. Each made 23 starts during the year.

The Make Room on the Mantel Award: Steeplechase jockey Gerard Galligan won his first jockey championship, wedging at least one trophy onto the family mantel which up to now had been dominated by his fleet-footed sister, Rose-Anne.

Welcome to the Club award: Jockey Kendrick Carmouche won the recently concluded Aqueduct riding title, securing his first Grade 1 stakes win when True Timber took the Cigar Mile.

The low-key, humble, hard-working veteran has gradually chiseled his name on the impervious New York riding circuit. In a year when the Black Lives Matter movement moved the country, the 36-year-old Carmouche, one of a few Black jockeys, plied his trade and said his peace.

Veteran of the Year: Yeah, Frankie Dettori turned 50. Perry Ouzts turned 66. Still going strong, the Ohio/Kentucky-based legend has won 78 races so far in 2020 and 7,144 in his career.

Only the long-since retired Russell Baze, Laffit Pincay Jr., Bill Shoemaker, Pat Day and Dave Gall are ahead of Ouzts.

Irish-breds of the Year: Tarnawa, Order Of Australia, Magical, Aunt Pearl, Digital Age and Beau Recall combined to earn $5,529,584. Each cracked the top 100 in earnings.

Overachiever of the Year: Head held high, veteran turf horse Channel Maker won two consecutive Grade 1 stakes and took a field full of international stars a long way before finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

The gangly chesnut pivots his head like a periscope looking for an enemy but always shows up, banking $2.9 million in his career.

The Fade Out of the Year: Starship Jubilee won five stakes races, including the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, to ascend the $2 million mark in career earnings. Not bad for a $16,000 claim.

The seven-year-old mare was set to enjoy one more trip around the oval for her finale but lost her jockey at the start of the Breeders’ Cup Turf. As trainer Kevin Attard said afterward, “Toughest game played outdoors. Thankfully she’s fine.”

Traveller of the Year: In an era when resting is required more than racing, Swiss Skydiver barnstormed the country, making 10 starts from coast to coast, winning five stakes, including the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Preakness against the boys.

Her exploits were so impressive, her sire, Daredevil, did the ultimate reverse commute, coming home from Turkey to stand at Lane’s End in Kentucky.