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Hall Of Famer John Velazquez Will Ride Full-Time At Santa Anita This Winter

For the first time in his illustrious 32-year career, Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez will ride full-time this winter at Santa Anita, beginning with the track's opening day, Sunday, Dec. 26.

A 50-year-old native of Puerto Rico, “Johnny V.” as he's affectionately known, is Thoroughbred racing's all-time leading money winning jockey, with career purse earnings of more than $446 million from 6,357 wins. A winner of four Kentucky Derbies, including this year's running with Medina Spirit, Velazquez has won 17 Breeders' Cup races, including the 2020 Breeders' Cup Classic with Authentic.

A dominant force on the East Coast for many years, Velazquez, who broke his maiden in Puerto Rico on Jan. 3, 1990, began riding full-time in New York later that year and was soon befriended by legendary Puerto Rican Hall of Famer Angel Cordero, Jr., who served as an invaluable mentor as Velazquez sought to immerse himself in American culture.

When Cordero retired from the saddle, he became Velazquez's agent in 1998. The results were instantaneous and they were remarkable, as Velazquez, who rode “first-call” for top trainer Todd Pletcher, would go on to become Saratoga's all-time leading jockey and become America's leading rider by money-won in 2004 and 2005, winning Eclipse Award Champion Jockey honors in both years as well.

Although he enjoyed tremendous success with Cordero, Velazquez shifted gears in late 2019, as he hired superstar agent Ron Anderson, who at the time was working for Joel Rosario, whom he continues to represent.

“We're looking to winter out there instead of going to Florida, we're looking for some sort of change,” said Anderson, himself a Southern California native. “Johnny's at a point, we're looking for good horses, graded stakes and the like…He'll be in and out (of town) a little bit, but something different. I think he's very excited about being there. His wife Leona went out and got a place over the weekend.

“He'll be riding for everybody, Bob Baffert, Doug O'Neill, Richie Baltas, Dick Mandella, everybody. I'll piece that together as we go. The first condition book came out (Monday) and I've already got a few guys that are knocking on the door.”

Far beyond his tremendous success as a rider, John Velazquez, who also serves as Chairman of the Board of the National Jockeys' Guild and as a board member of the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, is revered by jockeys and horsemen nationwide for his unwavering commitment to his fellow riders and the betterment of the sport in general.

“He's one of the greatest guys ever,” said Anderson. “What he does for the Jockeys' Guild and all the time he puts in, the meetings and following up with individual riders through a lot of situations…He's just different. He's really, really a special person at the end of the day. He's positive, he's classy, he's considerate, he's kind to everybody.

“As a rider, his numbers and his records speak for themselves. He's the number one leading rider of all-time. You'll see, he's just a special person.”

Anderson also noted that although Velazquez will be based at Santa Anita through the month of March, he will also be flying out of town to ride in major stakes such as the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park Jan. 29 and other races nationally and internationally as well.

Velazquez, a winner of Santa Anita's 2009 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, also notched a significant milestone at Santa Anita, when he passed retired Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey with his 661st graded stakes winner aboard the Baffert-trained Bast in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes here on Sept. 27, 2019—making him racing's all-time leading graded stakes winning jockey.

Velazquez will be joining a star-studded riding colony headed by the likes of Flavien Prat, Juan Hernandez, Umberto Rispoli, Joe Bravo, Abel Cedillo and fellow Hall of Famers Kent Desormeaux, Victor Espinoza and Mike Smith.

First post time for an 11-race card on Santa Anita's Winter/Spring Meet opening day, Dec. 26, is at 11 a.m. For additional information, please visit santaanita.com or call (626) 574-RACE.

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Resurgent Kent Desormeaux Voted Jockey Of The Week

Veteran jockey Kent Desormeaux closed the Del Mar Bing Crosby meet on a high note by winning two graded stakes during the track's turf festival. His achievements earned the title of Jockey of the Week for Nov. 22 through Nov. 28. The honor, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.

The holiday weekend card featured seven stakes races on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. Riding for trainer Phil D'Amato on Friday, Desormeaux was aboard the stretch-running Say the Word for the first time in the G2 Hollywood Turf Cup. Say the Word was last in the field of seven for the first mile of the 1 1/2-mile contest for 3-year-olds and up. Desormeaux swung Say the Word to the outside at the top of the stretch and in a drive to the wire overtook his stablemate Acclimate to win by a length in 2:27.62. The win was Desormeaux's first in the Hollywood Turf Cup.

Trainer John Shirreffs gave a leg up to Desormeaux on Beyond Brilliant in Saturday's G1 Hollywood Derby. In the field of 14, Desormeaux was riding Beyond Brilliant for the third time. From an inside post, the duo made every pole a winning one finishing the nine furlong test over Santin by a neck in 1:48.84.

“All the credit for this win goes to the barn,” said Desormeaux to the Del Mar publicity office. “They've done wonders with this horse the past month. When I rode him last time (10/31) at Santa Anita, he was a handful to control. Today he was easy.”

The victory was the first for Desormeaux in the Hollywood Derby. He has 87 stakes wins at Del Mar, ninth most of all riders.

After a slow start to the meet, Hall of Famer Desormeaux came on strong to finish 4th in the Del Mar standings with 10 wins and $1,153,196 in purses.

Desormeaux outpolled Tyler Gaffalione who was the leading rider in wins for the week, Jose Lezcano who won three stakes races, Jose Ortiz with two Grade 1 stakes and one Grade 3, and Irad Ortiz, Jr. who won four stakes races.

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Ryan Moore Reclaims Longines World’s Best Jockey Title

After winning six different qualifying races on five different horses in four different countries, Ryan Moore has won the title of 2021 Longines World's Best Jockey. The European-based rider dominated the standings for most of the year en route to winning the competition for the third time. Moore also was named the Longines World's Best Jockey in 2014 and 2016.

In 2021, Moore won six of the world's Top 100 Group or Grade 1 races, with his qualifying victories coming in the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (Mogul), Al Quoz Sprint Sponsored by Azizi Developments (Extravagant Kid), Prince of Wales's Stakes (Love), Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Dream of Dreams), Coral-Eclipse (St Mark's Basilica), and Irish Champion Stakes (St Mark's Basilica).

The scoring process rewards jockeys for finishing in the top three, giving Moore a total of 112 points on the year. William Buick was a close second with 104 points, while James McDonald ended the year in third with 96 points. No other jockey in the world scored above 68 points.

The awarding of the Longines World's Best Jockey title is based upon performances in the 100 highest-rated Group 1 and Grade 1 races as established for the year by the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings Committee. The scoring incorporates races from Dec. 1 of the previous year until Nov. 30 of the current year. Jockeys accrue 12 points for a win, 6 points for placing second, and 4 points for placing third.

Now a three-time winner of the competition, Moore was the inaugural recipient of the Longines World's Best Jockey Award, which was established in 2014. Only Frankie Dettori, a four-time winner, has won the title more often. Additionally, Hugh Bowman took the title in 2017. Moore will be honored in mid-January when the 2021 Longines World's Best Racehorse and Longines World's Best Horse Race winners are announced.

The full and final standings for the 2021 Longines World's Best Jockey competition can be found at www.ifhaonline.org.

The Longines World's Best Jockey Award was established eight years ago by Swiss watch brand Longines and the IFHA as a way to quantitatively recognise a jockey as the best among his or her global peers. It marked the first time a rider was honoured in such a way.

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Champion Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. Sets His Sights On Fourth Straight Championship Meet Title

Having won more races at a single Championship Meet than any jockey in history, Irad Ortiz Jr. returns to Gulfstream Park for the 2021-2022 season with his sights set on a fourth straight riding title.

Already, the 29-year-old Ortiz is in elite company as one of just four riders to lead the country's premiere winter meet standings three consecutive years, along with Jeff Fell (1977-79), Jorge Chavez (1999-2001) and Javier Castellano. Hall of Famer Castellano won a record five straight before being unseated by Luis Saez in 2016-17.

Ortiz ended Saez's two-year reign to start his own streak in 2018-2019 and, after flirting with Saez's single-season standard of 137 wins that year before ending with 135, surpassed it in dramatic fashion by guiding Known Agenda to a 2 ¾-length upset of the Curlin Florida Derby (G1) presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farm at Xalapa for No. 138.

Represented by agent Steve Rushing, Ortiz would finish with 140 wins including the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1) with Colonel Liam who, like Known Agenda, is trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher. They also teamed up with Fearless in the WinStar Gulfstream Park Mile (G2), Con Lima in the Herecomesthebride (G3) and Always Shopping in the La Prevoyante (G3).

In all, Ortiz won 14 stakes last winter including the Gulfstream Park Sprint (G3) on Mischevious Alex. On Feb. 6, he won six of 12 races, one victory shy of the single-day track record shared by Saez, Tyler Gaffalione, Paco Lopez and Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey.

“It was a great meet last year for me. What I can I say?” Ortiz said. “I have to say thank you to all the people for their help. Without their help and their support, it wouldn't be possible, honestly. I want to go and have fun and enjoy my time there. It's great weather, it's great racing and, hopefully, we can do it again.”

Ortiz heads to Gulfstream off a November to remember that began at Del Mar, where he earned his fourth straight Bill Shoemaker Award as top jockey during the Breeders' Cup World Championships following wins in the Dirt Mile (G1), Turf Sprint (G1) and Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2). He also finished second in the Turf (G1).

From there he returned to New York and won three more stakes including the Red Smith (G2). On Nov. 23, he won three stakes at Zia Park in New Mexico for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, including the Zia Park Derby and Oaks; went to Kentucky for the Clark (G1) where he finished off the board with Pletcher's Dr Post; and was back in California to ride for regular client Chad Brown. While there, he won the Jimmy Durante (G3) for a second straight year.

“I've been doing good, thank God. My agent does a great job,” Ortiz said. “Those are three great trainers and three people that we ride for. We went and did the best we could and I'm happy.”

Ortiz has been voted the Eclipse Award as North America's champion jockey each of the last three years, and will be prominent in the discussion again in 2021. Entering December, he ranked first in North America in wins (327) and has won 57 stakes, 33 of them graded, including 10 Grade 1 races. He was second to Joel Rosario in purses earned with $28,534,585 and holds the single-season mark of $34.1 million set in 2019.

This year marks Ortiz's seventh straight with at least 300 wins and eighth in a row topping $20 million in purse earnings. He picked up his 3,000th career victory Oct. 7 at Belmont Park on Saratoga Kisses for owner-trainer Rudy Rodriguez, a total that included 92 wins in his native Puerto Rico, according to Equibase.

“When you ride against the best, you learn. You learn a lot,” Ortiz said. “I like those kinds of races. When you're riding against the best jockeys in the world you learn a lot from them even when you get beat. We have some experience from that, and that makes you better.”

Following the 2020-2021 Championship Meet, Ortiz finished second during Belmont Park's spring meet by two wins to younger brother, Jose, as well as to Saez at Saratoga. Winner of the Belmont fall meet by a single victory over his sibling, Ortiz was tied with Jose Lezcano atop Aqueduct's fall meet standings.

“I feel good,” Ortiz said. “I want to go [to Gulfstream] and have the same support from the trainers and owners, I hope. I know if I have the same support they've given me that I can do something. I feel positive. I'm looking forward to it.”

The 87-day Championship Meet featuring 76 stakes, 37 graded, worth $14.26 million in purses opens Friday and runs through Sunday, April 3.

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