Author: Wynn Elliott

by Najja Thompson The New York Racing Association, (NYRA) Inc. has announced Javier Castellano as the 2019 recipient of the Mike Venezia Award, the prestigious honor awarded to jockeys who exemplify extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship. The Venezia Award will be presented to Castellano on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27 in a ceremony at Belmont Park. Established in 1989, the award is named in honor of jockey Mike Venezia, who died as a result of injuries he suffered in a spill in 1988 at Belmont Park. Venezia, a Brooklyn native, won more than 2,300 races during his 25-year career. Castellano, 41 was selected as the 2019 winner through an online fan vote hosted on NYRA.com that closed on May 20. The field of candidates included brothers Irad Ortiz, Jr. and Jose Ortiz, Florent Geroux, and Ricardo Santana, Jr. Inducted to the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 2017, Castellano who was born in Venezuela and moved to the United States in June 1997, has been among the leading riders in New York and the nation winning four consecutive Eclipse Awards as Outstanding Jockey from 2013-16. He has won 12 riding titles on the NYRA circuit and is routinely among the top riders in earnings, registering more than $22 million in 2018. Castellano also holds the record for most wins in the Travers, the “Mid-Summer Derby”, with six wins including...

Arlington Park Press Release Chris Emigh won his first race in 1989 as an 18-year-old riding the Southern Louisiana circuit. 29 years later he is sitting on 3,983 wins coming into the 2019 Arlington park meet where he has found plenty of success over the years. He sits third on the Arlington Park all-time winningest jockeys behind Hall of Famers Earlie Fires, and Pat Day. Emigh couldn’t be more excited at the fact that he’s nearing this milestone and hoping to reach it at Arlington Park, “It’s what I was hoping. It’s been home for me for so long and the people here, the crowd, the celebration, everything. This is a dream track and I was really hoping it wouldn’t happen anywhere else but here.” For Emigh, being underestimated when he was younger was something he just learned to deal with. Even he didn’t feel as though he was a very good rider back in those days, but he always had one number in mind. 4,000. “I told myself if I consistently work hard, wake up every day and give everything I’ve got to this, one day I can reach 4,000. 4,000 wins was the number; it’s always been the number. I knew if I reached 4,000 no one would ever be able to tell me I wasn’t a good rider.” On opening day Emigh is named to ride...

Santa Anita Press Release ARCADIA, Calif. (May 2, 2019)–In what will surely be an intensely emotional moment, veteran jockey Scott Stevens will be presented with the 2019 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in a Winner’s Circle ceremony at Santa Anita on Sunday, May 19. A winner of more than 4,800 races in a career that has spanned 43 years, Stevens will be joined on May 19 by family, friends and colleagues, including the 1996 Woolf Award winner, retired Hall of Famer Gary Stevens, as the pair thus become the first brotherly tandem to win the prestigious award in its 70-year history. The winner via a vote of jockeys nationwide, Stevens placed first among a list of five finalists that included Joe Bravo, Kerwin Clark, John Davila, Jr. and Julien Leparoux. “I know I was there when Gary won, but honestly, it’s been so long ago, I don’t remember,” said Stevens from his base at Turf Paradise in Phoenix. “This award is so special and I was honored just to be nominated. When you think about all the great riders and the great people that have won it and to be selected by a vote of your peers…It’s really more than I can describe.” Born Oct. 6, 1960 in Caldwell, Idaho, Stevens is the son of a former trainer, Ron, and rodeo queen, Barbara.  Steeped in the ways of the...