Jockey Junior Alvarado ended 2022 on a high note with two Grade 3 stakes wins at Gulfstream Park on Saturday, Dec. 31, earning Jockey of the Week for Dec. 27 through Jan. 1 by the panel of racing experts. The award honors jockeys for riding accomplishments and who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.
Gulfstream Park presented a New Year's Eve card with 11 races, five of which were graded stakes. Trainer Shug McGaughey gave Alvarado a leg up on Stolen Holiday in the G3 Suwannee River, a one mile turf test for fillies and mares three-years-old and up. Stolen Holiday raced well back in the field of nine, encountering traffic trouble before unleashing a determined stretch run to overtake Lady Rockstar to win by a length in 1:34.32.
“She broke good,” said Alvarado. “I was getting in there behind the speed horses and somebody on the rail squeezed through, pushed me out, make me clip heels and after that it was Plan C or D to come from behind. Turning for home, she just gave me a beautiful kick and I knew at the eighth pole that I was going to get there.”
In the next race, Alvarado was aboard Sibelius for trainer Jeremiah O'Dwyer in the G3 Mr. Prospector for three-year-olds and up. Sibelius stalked the early pace from the inside and drew away in the stretch to win by 2 1/4 lengths in 1:23.04 for seven furlongs on the turf.
The win moved Alvarado to within five of career win 2,000.
“I know it's there because they remind me every time I win a race now,” said Alvarado about the career milestone. “I just try to do my job. I don't try to worry about it, eventually it will come. I just go race by race and try to do my best and it will eventually come.”
Alvarado, 36, won his first Breeders' Cup race, the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, in 2022 aboard fan favorite Cody's Wish trained by Bill Mott. Alvarado was also the regular rider of the Mott-trained Olympiad who won five graded stakes in 2022.
Alvarado out-polled Jose Ortiz who won a stakes race at Gulfstream Park, Irad Ortiz, Jr. with a graded stakes win at Gulfstream and registered his 50th graded stakes of 2022, DeShawn Parker who won two stakes races at Fair Grounds, and Maryland-based Jevian Toledo who was the leading rider for the week in wins with eight.
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