Leparoux, Bravo among George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award finalists

ARCADIA, Calif. – Led by two-time Eclipse Award winner Julien Leparoux, five riders who have combined to win more than 19,000 races were announced by Santa Anita on Wednesday as the finalists for the 2022 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.

Leparoux’s fellow finalists are Joe Bravo, Glenn Corbett, Rodney Prescott, and Tim Thornton.

The Woolf Award is considered one of the most prestigious awards a rider can win, as it is voted on by their peers. It is given for accomplishments on and off the track, and can only be won once. It has been awarded annually since 1950. Deshawn Parker was the most-recent winner. This year’s winner will be announced in February, according to a press release.

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Leparoux, 38, was the Eclipse Award-winning jockey of 2009, three years after he won the Eclipse Award as champion apprentice. He has won seven Breeders’ Cup races among his 2,841 career victories entering racing as of Wednesday. His mounts have earned more than $179 million. Leparoux has been the leading rider 12 times at Keeneland, where he ranks second all-time in stakes wins. He is currently riding at Gulfstream Park, with occasional forays to Oaklawn Park.

Bravo, 50, has won 5,523 races, including the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, to rank 24th all-time. Bravo has had most of his success at Monmouth Park, where he won 13 riding titles and earned the nickname “Jersey Joe.” He is now based at Santa Anita.

Corbett, 55, has ridden at 36 tracks in 18 states during a nearly four-decade career, according to thisishorseracing.com. He is currently riding at Turf Paradise, and spends the winters there and the rest of the year at Prairie Meadows, where he was inducted in to that track’s Hall of Fame in 2019. His mounts have earned $56.6 million, and his 4,056 wins rank him 77th all-time.

Just behind him at number 78 is Prescott, 47, who has 4,007 victories, many of them at Indiana Grand, where he has been the leading rider three times. Prescott’s mounts have earned more than $58 million. He was the country’s second-winningest rider in 2005, when he set a single-season personal best of more than $3.5 million in purses earned by his mounts. He is currently riding at Turfway Park.

Thornton, 34, is currently riding at Delta Downs, where on Oct. 23 he set a track record by winning seven races on a single card. Thornton is seeking his fourth consecutive title at Delta. He has won 2,591 races during his career, which began in 2003, and his mounts have earned $49.5 million. Thornton was the nation’s second-winningest rider in 2018, behind only Irad Ortiz Jr. His career is all the more remarkable in that he was born with just one kidney.

Woolf, a Hall of Fame rider, was killed in an accident at Santa Anita in 1946 at age 35. His major victories included the 1938 Pimlico Special match race in which Seabiscuit defeated Triple Crown winner War Admiral, and the inaugural Santa Anita Handicap in 1935 on Azucar, There is a statue of him in the paddock gardens at Santa Anita, and replica of that bronze is presented to the winning rider.