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DeShawn Parker Wins 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced today that veteran jockey DeShawn Parker is the winner of the 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award.

Parker, based at Indiana Grand, was chosen in ballots cast by more than 350 professional jockeys at North American tracks. He outpolled a distinguished group of finalists including Junior Alvarado, Julien Leparoux, Scott Stevens and Gerard Melancon, and will be recognized in a special ceremony on Thursday, September 2 at Saratoga Race Course.

Created in 1989, the Mike Venezia Memorial Award is awarded to a jockey who displays the extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship that personified Venezia, who died as the result of injuries suffered in a spill in 1988. Venezia, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., won more than 2,300 races during his 25-year career.

“It's an honor just to be on the ballot for this award,” said Parker. “It's extra special that my fellow riders are the ones who made the selection. I take a lot of pride in being a role model both on and off the track. I will cherish this award.”

In a career that has spanned more than 30 years, Parker, 50, was America's leading rider in 2010 with 377 wins, becoming the first Black rider to do so since 1895. He led all jockeys again in 2011 with 400 wins; and is now closing in on 5,900 career wins. A native of Cincinnati, Parker was a dominant rider for more than 20 years at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia. He has also enjoyed considerable success at Indiana Grand, where he was leading rider in 2020, and at Sam Houston Race Park, where he was leading rider in 2015.

Winning the Venezia Award is another major accomplishment for Parker in a year he described as “personally emotional but exciting.” In early March, Parker lost his father, Daryl Parker, a longtime Ohio racing steward, to cancer. Parker called his father his mentor and inspiration for becoming a jockey, especially after telling his 5-foot-10-inch son to ignore the naysayers who said he was too tall to make it as a professional rider.

“My idol, my best friend and a great father!” Parker said of his father. “He meant so much to my life and my career. I can only hope to be as great as he was.”

Two weeks after the passing of his father, Parker was selected by a vote of jockeys nationwide as the winner of the 2021 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, presented by Santa Anita Park.

The Venezia Memorial Award is a 13-inch bronze sculpture with a title that reads, “The Jockey, A Champion.” Parker joins a legendary group of riders who have won the award previously, including Venezia, who posthumously earned the inaugural award in 1989, as well as Bill Shoemaker, Angel Cordero, Jr., Jerry Bailey, Mike Smith, Gary Stevens, Richard Migliore, Edgar Prado, Ramon Dominguez, Joe Bravo and Javier Castellano.

For Migliore, the 2003 Venezia Memorial Award winner who is now with NYRA TV, the award continues the legacy of Venezia.

“Winning the award myself was one the proudest moments of my career because Mike Venezia embodied everything you look for in a rider,” said Migliore. “He continues to be an example for today's jockeys and for our sport. DeShawn Parker is a worthy addition to this group of jockeys.”

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Mountaineer ‘Always Going To Be Home’ For Track’s All-Time Leader Deshawn Parker

Jockey Deshawn Parker has returned to Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort in West Virginia in recent years to ride a horse or two, but the track's all-time leading jockey was a bit surprised when he was named to ride in eight of nine races on the Aug. 7 West Virginia Derby program.

“My agent told me we had horses going in, but this was a surprise,” said Parker, who is listed to ride Bourbon Thunder in the $500,000 Grade 3 Derby and Bourbon Calling in the $200,000 Grade 3 West Virginia Governor's Stakes, with mounts in four other stakes and two overnight events.

Parker, who raised his family in East Liverpool, Ohio, not far across the river from Mountaineer, and still has his home there, decided in late 2013 to leave the West Virginia track and branch out to Texas, Indiana and Kentucky. At the height of his Mountaineer success, Parker often would have mounts in all nine or 10 races, five nights a week.

Statistics provided by Brisnet.com show Parker has won an amazing 4,785 races from 28,221 starts at Mountaineer alone, and 5,886 overall. He leads all categories, which include stakes victories and earnings.

Parker, whose mounts have earned $75.7 million, first started riding for trainer John Semer at Mountaineer, and eventually landed in the barn of Dale Baird, the track's all-time leading trainer, and as of Aug. 4 Thoroughbred racing's all-time leading trainer with 9,445 wins. That set the stage for multiple years of more than 300 wins for Parker, who in 2011 won 400 races.

With Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen just a handful of wins away from eclipsing the late Baird's record, Parker reflected on his success with Baird at Mountaineer.

“It's going to break my heart,” Parker said. “People would say Dale was very hard to approach, but I know that once you got to know Dale, he was great. He would even ask me to go on trips with him to buy horses. I felt honored he wanted me to go with him. And remember, Dale only had one string of horses that would go back and forth between the track and his farm.”

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Parker earlier this year received the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Award, which recognizes riders whose careers and personal character garner esteem for the individual and Thoroughbred racing. He was joined at Santa Anita Park in California by Luis M. Quinones, another Mountaineer veteran and riding champion who won the award in 2020 but whose ceremony was postponed because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“It worked out perfectly,” Parker said of the delay. “We both ended up at Santa Anita together. It was a great weekend.”

And he's happy to be spending this weekend with family and friends in his own back yard.

“Mountaineer is always going to be home,” Parker said. “I love the track and love the people. When the (purse) money started getting less and less, I made a choice between having to ride so many races and win so many races, or ride less and make more money.

“To this day people ask me how I could have stayed there that long. Well, I love it, and I don't have a bad thing to say about it. There are great people there, including the fans. Mountaineer boosted my career to where I never thought it could be.”

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Venezia Award Nominees Announced

Junior Alvarado, Julien Leparoux, Deshawn Parker, Gerard Melancon and Scott Stevens are finalists for the 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award, the New York Racing Association announced Sunday.

All active jockeys in the continental U.S. are eligible to vote for the award winner.

“No one knows better than their fellow riders who is the most deserving of this award,” said Terry Meyocks, President and CEO of the Jockeys' Guild. “No matter who is chosen this year, each of these finalists is an accomplished athlete whose skills and dedication to racing is rivaled only by the respect they earn off the track.”

The 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award will be presented in a special ceremony at Saratoga Race Course Sept. 2.

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Venezia Award Nominees Announced, Voting Open To Active Jockeys

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) today announced that voting for the 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award is now open to active jockeys in the continental U.S. They will choose among a distinguished group of finalists including Junior Alvarado, Julien Leparoux, Deshawn Parker, Gerard Melancon, and Scott Stevens.

The competition was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making this year the first time the award will be bestowed since 2019. This year's award — in which the riders will select the winner — marks a change from the past several years when fans voted for the Venezia Award.

For Richard Migliore of NYRA TV, a retired jockey and the 2003 Venezia Award winner, the award serves to continue the legacy of Venezia.

“Winning the award myself was one the proudest moments of my career because Mike Venezia embodied everything you look for in a rider,” said Migliore. “He continues to be a role model for riders and for our sport. This group of nominees is as well.”

The 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award will be presented in a special ceremony at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Thursday, September 2.

The first Venezia Memorial Award was awarded posthumously to Venezia in 1989. Recent winners of the award include Hall of Famer Javier Castellano [2019], Joe Bravo [2018], Kendrick Carmouche [2017], Mario Pino [2016], Jon Court [2015], Hall of Famer John Velazquez [2014], and Hall of Famer Ramon Dominguez [2013].

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2021 nominee biographies:

Junior Alvarado: A native of Barquisimeto, Venezuela, and the son of a jockey, Alvarado is a mainstay on the New York and Florida racing circuits, with more than 1,800 races and $103 million in purses in a career that dates to 2007 in the U.S. In New York, Alvarado has consistently excelled, winning the 2019 Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic aboard Arlow and the Grade 1 Woodward presented by NYRA Bets on Preservationist; and in 2014, Moreno in the Grade 1 Whitney. In his first start in a Triple Crown race, the 2016 Kentucky Derby, Alvarado finished fourth aboard Mohaymen.

Julien Leparoux: A native of Senlis, France whose father was a jockey-turned-assistant trainer, Leparoux has amassed more than 2,800 wins and $175 million in prize money since moving to the U.S. in 2005. Those victories include seven Breeders' Cup races, including the 2015 Mile aboard Champion Turf Mare Tepin and the 2016 Juvenile on Classic Empire. At the 2009 Breeders' Cup, Leparoux earned the Shoemaker Award as the winningest jockey with three victories. Also in 2009, he led the North American earnings list and received the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey.

Deshawn Parker: In 2010, the Cincinnati native and son of a jockey became the first African American rider since 1895 to lead all North American jockeys in races. Racing professionally since 1988, Parker has amassed more than 5,800 wins and $75 million in earnings with many of those victories compiled at Mountaineer Park, where he was a perennial leading rider at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia for more than 20 years. Earlier this year, Parker was selected by a vote of jockeys nationwide as the winner of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, presented annually by Santa Anita to the rider whose career and personal character earn esteem for the individual and for racing.

Gerard Melancon: On June 11, 2021 in the eighth race at Evangeline Downs, the Rayne, Louisiana native reached a milestone when he became the 37th jockey in North American history to reach 5,000 wins. Melancon's first professional ride was at Delta Downs in 1984 – and since then, he has ridden in more than 31,900 races and earned more than $88 million in purses. Melancon has won multiple riding titles at Delta Downs, Evangeline Downs and Louisiana Downs; and ridden successful horses ranging from Bonapaw and Fantasticat to Rise Up, Sabrecat, Skate Away and Zarb's Dahar.

Scott Stevens: Breaking into racing in 1976 and accepting his first mount at age 15 at Les Bois Park in his native Idaho, Stevens has established himself through the years as top rider at Turf Paradise, where he has won nine titles, and one of the best at Canterbury Downs, where he has earned three riding titles. Stevens has compiled career marks of 5,049 wins and $43,680,518 in purses to date. In 2019, he was honored with the George Woolf Award. He is the older brother of Hall of Fame rider and 1999 Venezia Memorial Award-winner Gary Stevens.

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