ARCADIA, Calif. – Accompanied by his family, Javier Castellano was honored with the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in a brief ceremony between races at Santa Anita on Sunday. A member of racing’s Hall of Fame and a four-time winner of the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding rider, from 2013 to 2016, Castellano was recognized with an award first introduced in 1950 to recognize career achievement and personal character. The award is based on a nationwide vote of jockeys. “It’s truly an honor to be here,” Castellano said. “It’s an amazing award.” Castellano credited his family with supporting his career in recent decades. :: Get ready for Santa Anita racing with DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports. “It pays off in the long run,” he said. “We’ve been blessed.” Castellano, 45, has won the Travers Stakes a record six times, most recently in 2018. He has won 12 Breeders’ Cup races and the Preakness twice, on Bernardini in 2006 and Cloud Computing in 2017. Castellano was a finalist for the Woolf award along with Daniel Centeno, Terry Houghton, Edwin Maldonado and Willie Martinez. The award was first presented in 1950 and honors the memory of the jockey who rode Seabiscuit to a win in a famous 1938 match race with War Admiral. Woolf died as a result of injuries suffered in a spill at Santa Anita in 1946. A native of Venezuela who relocated to the United States in 1997, Castellano has won 5,628 races in North America through Sunday. He is currently riding at Gulfstream Park, where he ranks sixth in the standings with 32 wins. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.