2019 Eclipse Awards: Javier Castellano

A winner of four consecutive Eclipse Awards from 2013-16, Javier Castellano is once again a finalist for the award in 2019.

Castellano, 42, led all jockeys in graded stakes wins with 36 and ranked first with 13 Grade 1 stakes victories, topped by his win aboard City of Light in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational in January at Gulfstream Park. His 54 stakes victories were third best.

Castellano’s purse earnings of $25,053,713 ranked third behind the Ortiz brothers – Irad and Jose – while his 197 victories placed him 22nd among all riders.

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

Castellano shined at the biggest meets. He was the leading percentage rider at the Keeneland spring meet (42 percent), where he tied for second-leading rider in wins, and at Saratoga (23 percent), where he was third in the standings. He also won the most graded stakes at those meets – six at Keeneland and seven at Saratoga.

Castellano and trainer Chad Brown made quite the potent team in 2019, winning 72 races together, including 17 stakes. Castellano won four Grade 1 stakes for Brown, including two on Rushing Fall and one each on Valid Point and Annals of Time.

Castellano won two Breeders’ Cup races this year, the Juvenile Fillies on British Idiom and the Turf Sprint on Belvoir Bay.

On May 17, at Pimlico, Castellano won five races on the card, four of which were stakes, including the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan and Grade 3 Miss Preakness. Castellano had four-win days at Belmont and Keeneland.

In 2019, Castellano was voted the Mike Venezia Award, given to jockeys who exemplify extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship. The award is sponsored by the New York Racing Association but is voted on by fans.