NEWS
Velazquez wins Woolf Award
Posted: Thursday, February 19, 2009 7:30 PM
VELAZQUEZ
NTRA photo
Two-time Eclipse Award winner John Velazquez was named the 2009 recipient of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award on Thursday at Santa Anita Park.
A national vote of riders determines the winner of the award, which has been presented annually by Santa Anita since 1950 to jockeys whose careers and personal character earn esteem for Thoroughbred racing. The award was created in honor of Woolf, who died soon after a race riding accident at the Arcadia, California, track on January 13, 1946.
Velazquez, who is currently riding at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, will receive the Woolf Award at Santa Anita in late March or early April, with a date to be announced. The Woolf Award trophy is a replica of the full-size statue of the late jockey that adorns Santa Anita’s Paddock Gardens area.
Velazquez won Eclipse Awards as North America’s outstanding jockey in 2004 and ’05. A first-call rider for trainer Todd Pletcher, Velazquez made his North American riding debut in 1990, and has amassed $218,151,030 in purse earnings and 4,054 wins through Wednesday.
A Carolina, Puerto Rico, native who lives in West Hempstead, New York, Velazquez has earned 366 wins in graded stakes. He and Pletcher earned their first wins in a North American classic race in 2007 when Rags to Riches edged two-time Horse of the Year Curlin by a head to become the first filly in 102 years to win the Belmont Stakes (G1).
Retired Racing Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr. is Velazquez’s agent. Velazquez began riding in New York in March 1990 after beginning his career in Puerto Rico.
Velazquez was elected chairman of the board of directors of the Jockeys’ Guild in July 2006.
