ARCADIA, Calif. – Paul Reddam, one of the most prominent owners in California, has two Kentucky Derby trophies courtesy of I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist four years later.
Reddam, who operates the stable with his wife, Zillah, has never won a Kentucky Oaks. Land Over Sea was second to Cathryn Sophia for the Reddams in 2016. Their most recent runner in the Oaks was the longshot Mopotism, who finished 10th in 2017.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kendrick Carmouche, James Graham, Brian Hernandez Jr., Juan Hernandez, and Alfredo Juarez Jr. are finalists for the 2025 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, Santa Anita announced on Monday.
The Woolf Award honors riders for achievements on the racetrack as well as personal character. The winner will be determined by a ballot of riders nationwide.
The five finalists represent jockeys currently riding throughout the nation.
Carmouche, 40, is based at Aqueduct. Through Sunday, the Louisiana native had 3,950 career wins, including 163 races in 2024.
Brad Cox did not have his best year in 2024.
A slightly down season for Cox lies beyond the wildest dreams of most Thoroughbred horse trainers.
Cox won 243 races, fourth most among North American trainers. He ranked third in earnings with $28.3 million, about $8.5 million more than Todd Pletcher’s next-highest total, and won 33 graded stakes, second only to Chad Brown’s 47 during the season.
Imagine having one of the crowning days of your professional life, basking in the success of a plan conceived and overseen through several months to an extremely successful, deeply satisfying conclusion.
Then, imagine it getting even better the next day.
So went the first weekend in May 2024 for Kenny McPeek.
A seventh, a did-not-finish, a 10th, and finally a victory in a winter all-weather surface contest at Kempton Park. So went Rebel’s Romance’s 5-year-old campaign of 2023, an assemblage of outings, including two in America, that were light years from Eclipse Award material. It was a far cry from his 4-year-old season, when he won a pair of Group 1s in Germany and the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland.
Johannes never departed Southern California during a six-start 2024 campaign. He didn’t need to.
Johannes had gone to Kentucky for the Grade 2 American Turf in May 2023, caught a wet course, ran far below his best form, and didn’t start again for the better part of the year. Not ready for the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile in March, Johannes still had available a Grade 3, two local Grade 2s, and a pair of Grade 1 turf races hitting his sweet spot, all between one mile and 1 1/8 miles. Why travel?
Not to get too dramatic about it, but anytime a case of colic becomes so severe as to require surgery, a horse is in danger of dying. Carl Spackler didn’t just make it through colic surgery in fall 2023 and recover, he made it back to the races and recovered his best form – and then some.
Four wins from six starts, two Grade 1s in which he beat FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile winner More Than Looks, and Carl Spackler put together a 2024 campaign worthy of Eclipse Award consideration.
Winning is business as usual for The Chosen Vron.
He was a neck from a perfect campaign last year and for a season highlighted by a popular victory in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar, he is an Eclipse Award finalist as champion male sprinter of 2024.
The Chosen Vron has compiled a career record of 19 wins from 25 starts. He went 5 for 6 in 2024, winning five consecutive stakes races before finishing second by a neck in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien on Aug. 24 at Del Mar.
