2019 Eclipse Awards: Irad Ortiz Jr.

In 2018, Irad Ortiz Jr. wrested the Eclipse Award from his younger brother Jose’s arms, and it doesn’t appear he’s ready to relinquish it any time soon.

Ortiz, 27, set a single-year record for earnings by a jockey in 2019 with $34,109,019, smashing the mark of $28,120,809 set by Javier Castellano in 2015. Ortiz led all jockeys in wins with 324, 62 of those coming in stakes, which also was tops among riders. His 35 graded stakes victories were second only to Javier Castellano’s 36.

:: Full list of 2019 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Ortiz won four Breeders’ Cup races, including the $6 million Classic aboard Vino Rosso, which came less than an hour after won the $4 million Turf on Bricks and Mortar. Ortiz won 11 Grade 1 stakes in 2019, five of those coming aboard Bricks and Mortar. Ortiz also won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Spun to Run and the Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint on Four Wheel Drive.

Ortiz won the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby on Math Wizard, a horse, like Spun to Run in the Breeders’ Cup, he was riding for the first time.

Trainer Todd Pletcher chose Ortiz to ride Vino Rosso after John Velazquez, the only previous rider Vino Rosso had, chose to ride Code of Honor in the Jockey Club Gold Cup when the pair met four weeks prior to the Breeders’ Cup.

“Some riders have a good rapport with certain horses. Irad and Vino Rosso really gelled, you could see there was great chemistry there from the first time he got on him,” Pletcher said.

On Feb. 18, Ortiz won six races at Gulfstream Park. He also had five-win days at Saratoga and Aqueduct.