[3] The Champion award is a designation given to a horse, irrespective of age, whose performance during the racing year was deemed the most outstanding.

[5] In 1936 a Horse of the Year award was created by a poll of the staff of The New York Morning Telegraph and its sister newspaper, the Daily Racing Form (DRF), a tabloid founded in 1894 that was focused on statistical information for bettors.

[6] At the same time a rival poll was organised by the Baltimore-based Turf and Sport Digest magazine.

[9] In a rare occurrence, two two-year-olds topped the balloting for 1972 American Horse of the Year honors with Secretariat edging out the filly, La Prevoyante.

In the event that there was a tie on points, the award would go to the horse who had received the most individual first-place votes.