The American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually in Thoroughbred flat racing. It became part of the Eclipse Awards program in 1971.
The award originated in 1936 when the Daily Racing Form (DRF) began naming an annual champion. In the same year, the Baltimore-based Turf and Sports Digest magazine instituted a similar award. Starting in 1950, the Thoroughbred Racing Associations (TRA) began naming its own champion. The following list provides the name of the horses chosen by these organizations. Whenever there were different champions named, the horses are listed side by side with the one chosen as champion by the Daily Racing Form noted with the letters (DRF), the one chosen by the Thoroughbred Racing Associations by the letters (TRA) and the one chosen by Turf and Sports Digest by the letters (TSD).
The Daily Racing Form, the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, and the National Turf Writers Association all joined forces in 1971 to create the Eclipse Award.
Champions from 1886 through 1935 were selected retrospectively by a panel of experts as published by The Blood-Horse magazine.[1]
| border="1" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size:90%" | ||||
| Year | Horse | Trainer | Owner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Hill Prince (DRF)[8] | Casey Hayes | Christopher Chenery | |
| 1949 | Oil Capitol (TSD)[9] | Harry Trotsek | Thomas Gray & Cora M. Trotsek | |
| 1948 | Blue Peter | Andy Schuttinger | Joseph M. Roebling | |
| 1947 | Citation | Ben & Horace Jones | Calumet Farm | |
| 1946 | Double Jay | Walter L. McCue | James V. Tigani & James Boines | |
| 1945 | Star Pilot | Tom Smith | Maine Chance Farm | |
| 1944 | Pavot | Oscar White | Walter M. Jeffords Sr. | |
| 1943 | Platter (DRF) | Bert Mulholland | George D. Widener Jr. | |
| 1943 | Occupy (TSD)[10] | Burley Parke | John Marsch | |
| 1942 | Count Fleet | Don Cameron | Fannie Hertz | |
| 1941 | Alsab | Sarge Swenke | Albert Sabath | |
| 1940 | Whirlaway (TSD)[11] | Ben A. Jones | Calumet Farm | |
| 1940 | Our Boots (DRF) | Steve Judge | Royce G. Martin | |
| 1939 | Bimelech | William A. Hurley | Edward R. Bradley | |
| 1938 | El Chico | William Ziegler Jr. | ||
| 1937 | Menow | Duval A. Headley | Hal Price Headley | |
| 1936 | Pompoon | Johnny Loftus | Jerome H. Louchheim |