2025 Eclipse Awards: Irad Ortiz Jr.

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. set a single-season record for mount earnings in 2025 as part of a long list of accomplishments the rider amassed in pursuit of his sixth Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding jockey.

Ortiz also led all his peers in wins with 351 from 1,621 mounts. In addition, he ranked second in graded stakes victories with 36 – winning a minimum of one such race every month in 2025. Ortiz also won three sprint championship races during the Breeders’ Cup and took down riding titles at Saratoga, Churchill Downs, and Keeneland.

The success helped lift the rider to total mount earnings of $40,497,847 last year. Ortiz had surpassed the single-season record he set in 2023 by early December, when he hit $39,200,190. From there, Ortiz kept piling on the mount earnings before closing 2025 with an unprecedented $40 million.

“It means a lot. It means we had a great year,” Ortiz said.

:: Full list of 2025 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Ortiz, a 32-year-old native of Puerto Rico, won three races at the Breeders’ Cup – the $2 million Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint with Bentornato, the $1 million Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint with Shisospicy, and the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint with Cy Fair. Other rich victories during the year included the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational with White Abarrio. The races ranked among his nine Grade 1 wins in 2025.

Others included the Stephen Foster and Churchill Downs Stakes presented by Ford with Mindframe, the Gamely with Be Your Best; the Cotillion with Clicquot; and the Coolmore Turf Mile with Rhetorical.

Ortiz previously won the Eclipse Award from 2018-20 and 2022-23.

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