DEL MAR, Calif.— The 19th Bill Shoemaker Award will be given this weekend to the outstanding jockey of the two-day Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar that kick off Friday afternoon.
Irad Ortiz, Jr., won his third consecutive Bill Shoemaker Award after winning the Sprint on Breeders’ Cup Championship aboard Whitmore at Keeneland November 7, 2020. (Jessica Morgan/Breeders’ Cup/Eclipse Sportswire/CSM)
Won the past three years by Irad Ortiz Jr., who has mounts in 10 Championship races this weekend plus an also-eligible in another, the Shoemaker Award will go to the jockey who rides the most winners in the 14 Championship races. Should there be a tie among two or more riders with the most victories, the deadlock will be broken on a 10-3-1 point system for second- through fourth-place finishes.
The Shoemaker Award is named in honor of one of the greatest jockeys in the history of Thoroughbred racing. Shoemaker, who captured the Kentucky Derby four times, won a staggering 8,833 races in a career that spanned more than 40 years. In 1987, at age 56, Shoemaker won the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) aboard Ferdinand at Hollywood Park.
The legendary jockey was inducted into the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in 1958 and the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1999.
Edited Breeders’ Cup Press Release
Photo of Bill Shoemaker courtesy of Cathy Rosenberger
