Breeder’s Cup Press Release
Santa Anita Park
Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. (Photo Credit: Coady Photo)
ARCADIA, Calif. (Nov. 6, 2019) – Irad Ortiz Jr. won the 17th Annual Bill Shoemaker Award, given to the most outstanding jockey in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup World Championships hosted by Santa Anita Park.
The Shoemaker Award goes to the jockey who won the most races in the 14 World Championships races and Ortiz, the Shoemaker Award winner last year at Churchill Downs, led all riders with four victories this weekend.
Ortiz’s victories began in the first Championship race on Four Wheel Drive in Friday’s Juvenile Turf Sprint, Spun to Run in the Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile, Bricks and Mortar in the Longines Turf and capped it off in the finale with a score on Vino Rosso in the Longines Classic.
Two riders, Javier Castellano and Joel Rosario, had two victories each.
Castellano won the Juvenile Fillies on British Idiom on Friday and Belvoir Bay in Saturday’s Turf Sprint. Rosario’s victories came Saturday on Covfefe in the Filly & Mare Sprint and Uni in the TVG Mile.
The Shoemaker Award is named in honor of one of the greatest jockeys in the history of Thoroughbred racing. Bill Shoemaker, who captured the Kentucky Derby four times, won more than 8,800 races in a career that spanned more than 40 years. In 1987, at age 56, Shoemaker won the Breeders’ Cup Classic aboard Ferdinand at Hollywood Park.
Bill Shoemaker Award winners:
2003: Alex Solis
2004: John Velazquez
2005: Garrett Gomez
2006: Frankie Dettori
2007: Garrett Gomez
2008: Garrett Gomez
2009: Julien Leparoux
2010: Garrett Gomez
2011: John Velazquez
2012: Mike Smith
2013: Mike Smith
2014: John Velazquez
2015: Ryan Moore
2016: Mike Smith
2017: Javier Castellano
2018: Irad Ortiz Jr.
2019: Irad Ortiz Jr.
