Irad Ortiz Jr. Wins Sixth Bill Shoemaker Award

[Wandering Eyes]

After claiming three winners during the marquee Breeders' Cup event at Del Mar, Irad Ortiz Jr. has won the 23rd Bill Shoemaker Award as outstanding jockey for the sixth time.

The Shoemaker Award goes to the jockey who rides the most winners in the 14-race Championship series with the tiebreaker being a 10-3-1 point system for second-through-fourth-place finishes. Ortiz opened his weekend on Cy Fair (Not This Time) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, and returned to the winner's enclosure Saturday with yet another filly beating the boys when Shisospicy (Mitole) ran her rivals off their feet in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint. One race later, he partnered with Bentornato (Valiant Minister) to claim redemption in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Ortiz took home the trophy four straight years between 2018 and 2021, and in the last eight years, only Flavien Prat and Ryan Moore were able to interrupt his streak of success at the World Championships–in 2024 and 2022, respectively.

The only other rider with multiple Breeders' Cup victories this year was last year's Shoemaker Award winner Flavien Prat. Prat had two, both coming Saturday, with Splendora (Audible) in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint and Nysos (Nyquist) in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

“It's a great trophy and it's a great honor,” Ortiz Jr. said. “You have to have a good day because it's by points. So you have to at least win some and the rest of the horses, they have to run good to keep getting points. So, that means you have a good day.”

“I love this week. It's one of my favorite weekends in the whole year, so it feels good to have a trophy because you have a good week on the best races in the in the year.”

When asked about inching closer to Mike Smith's win record at the Breeders' Cup, Ortiz said, “That'd be great. Yeah, I mean, I have so much respect for Mike. He's got, I think, 27 [wins]…it's really hard to get to that number, but we're going to keep working on it. Try to do our best out there and you know, it's not easy. You have to have a good horse honestly. I'm just very fortunate. We've been having a good ride and we're gonna keep positive. Stay positive and keep working on it.”

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