The title of American Champion Older Dirt Male Horse is an American Thoroughbredhorse racing honor awarded annually to a stallion or gelding, four years old and up, for performances on dirt and main track racing surfaces. In 1971, it became part of the Eclipse Awards program as the award for Champion Older Male Horse.
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). Prior to 1971 this award was referred to as "Champion Handicap Male Horse". The Daily Racing Form version was open to any horse, three years old and up and this award was given to some Champions at the age of three, such as Citation, Buckpasser, Damascus and Arts and Letters.
Champions from 1887 through 1935 were selected retrospectively by a panel of experts as published by The Blood-Horse magazine.[1]
In 2015, the Daily Racing Form, the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, and the National Turf Writers Association decided that the award would be renamed and awarded to older horses proficient in dirt and main track races.[2]
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