2021 Eclipse Awards: Charlie Marquez

Charlie Marquez rode with an apprentice allowance for less than five months last year, but he put up such significant numbers that he is an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2021.

Marquez won 50 races from 290 mounts through the final day of his apprentice allowance on May 29. His mounts during that period earned $1,454,210. Marquez’s win total and earnings ranked fourth among all North American-based apprentices in 2021.

Marquez also celebrated the Pimlico Race Course riding title in 2021, and won the first stakes race of his career in the $100,000 Private Terms in March at Laurel Park. He was the leading apprentice jockey in Maryland in 2020.

“I always wanted to be a jockey,” Marquez, 18, told publicity at Laurel. “I came to the track a bunch when I was young. I came to Pimlico with my mom and on Preakness Day we used to walk over here with my brother.

“I used to go in the morning with her when she used to gallop for Mary Eppler and when she used to work for Jose Corrales at Laurel. I’d go in the morning and sit by the rail and fantasize. Now I’m doing it.”

:: Full list of 2021 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Marquez’s first stakes win came with Shackled Love.

“He’s really wanted this all his life – since he was a baby,” Marquez’s mother, Valerie Kounelis, told publicity at Laurel. “To see that we actually got him to this point, it just brings tears to my eyes.”