At the end of play on November 6, after 14 Breeders’ Cup races have been run and untold gallons of Del Margaritas consumed, one jockey will have earned the Bill Shoemaker Award as the riding star of the 2-day extravaganza. The honor is earned on the track, based on the old-fashioned notion that winners count more than anything, and anything else is good for nothing more than tiebreakers.
Even so, a jockey can have a pretty good bad day at the Breeders’ Cup. Gary Stevens, all of 23 at the time, was in the dumps after the 1986 affair at Santa Anita Park, when he was blanked with six live mounts in front of his home crowd. Three of them finished second.
“Then I added up what they’d won,” Stevens said later. “I didn’t feel quite so bad.” The total was $1,340,000.
The Shoemaker Award was inaugurated for the Santa Anita Breeders’ Cup of 2003, inspired by the death of the great little man himself just days before the event, in his home just a few miles west of the track.
It had been 13 years since Shoemaker had ridden the last of his 8,833 winners, which included four in the Kentucky Derby and five in the Belmont Stakes. The one-car crash that rendered Shoemaker a paraplegic had a predictable impact on his budding career as a trainer, but he soldiered on in a wheelchair, powered by a sip-and-puff control system and a fierce determination to overcome all obstacles.
Shoemaker lingered long enough as a jockey to ride 14 Breeders’ Cup races, most notably the 1987 Classic at Hollywood Park in which he deftly produced a final burst from the shy warrior Ferdinand to defeat the onrushing young challenger, Alysheba. Kentucky Derby winners never looked better.
Alex Solis won that first Shoemaker Award, and since then there have been eight others, including multiple winners Garrett Gomez, John Velazquez, Mike Smith, and Irad Ortiz Jr, who has taken home the last three titles with eight Cup wins since 2018.
It is a shame, however, that it took 19 presentations of the Cup and the death of a legend to institute a jockey award at all. The most vivid Breeders’ Cup memories often come wrapped in a ride that made all the difference, whether it was Shoemaker’s awakening of Ferdinand, or Gomez and his broken shoulder getting the jump on Zenyatta, or Randy Romero, head down and hurtling through the Kentucky gloom aboard Personal Ensign, refusing to accept no for an answer.
To single out a handful of rides among the 360 Breeders’ Cup races arrayed over 37 years is a silly, futile gesture. But here goes anyway – a dozen of the greatest Breeders’ Cup rides this reporter has had the good fortune to witness first hand:
- Chris McCarron thought for a moment he was home and dry aboard the ferocious Storm Cat in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile of 1985 at Aqueduct. They had stalked Groovy’s pace and shot clear in midstretch, oblivious to the progress of LAFFIT PINCAY and Del Mar Futurity winner Tasso from deep in the pack. Pincay had sacrificed ground to keep his young colt free of the inside tangle and it paid off with a grinding finish that McCarron saw coming out in the middle of the track but could do nothing about (see video below). When Pincay won races by a nose, it always was because of Pincay.
- PAT DAY pulled a Pincay aboard Epitome in the 1987 Juvenile Fillies at Hollywood Park. The hapless victim that day was none other than Shoemaker himself, who was belly down and riding like a kid on the Nijinsky filly Jeanne Jones through an opening half-mile under pressure in 44 seconds flat. Despite the pace, Day did not trust Shoemaker to fold easily. He clung to the rail with Epitome, pulled to fresh goggles at the eighth pole, and got up to catch the leader in the last step of the one-turn mile.
- Riding a horse for the first time in a stakes race should be no big deal. Riding a notoriously difficult horse for the first time in the most important race of the season, with Horse of the Year on the line, is a very big deal. That is what CHRIS McCARRON was faced with in taking over for the drug suspended Pat Valenzuela aboard Sunday Silence in the 1989 Classic at Gulfstream Park. McCarron proceeded to handle Sunday Silence as if reading his mind, getting the jump on rival Easy Goer at every point, and winning with something to spare while never touching the black colt with the whip (see video below). Perfection.
- There was a point on the far turn of the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita when McCarron looked to his left aboard Bien Bien to find Kotashaan and KENT DESORMEAUX, which is the exact moment Desormeaux tipped Kotashaan to the right and drew abreast of his season-long rival as they banked into the stretch. The move required McCarron to ask his big chestnut sooner than he preferred, and Bien Bien answered. But Kotashaan had the longer kick, and the day belonged to Kent. Pulling up, McCarron extended his hand. He knew a great ride when he saw one.
- Earlier that same day, the Distaff provided the resourceful EDDIE DELAHOUSSAYE with one of those evergreen wisecracks that can be trotted out as long as jockeys wear white pants. For 8½ of the 9 furlongs, Delahoussaye had ridden a flawless race aboard Hollywood Wildcat, with McCarron and defending champ Paseana dogging them throughout. They were joined as one from the top of the stretch, then, just inside the sixteenth marker, as McCarron flailed away at Paseana, Delahoussaye flipped his whip to give Hollywood Wildcat a final rap. But the whip slipped, and with barely a dozen strides from the line Delahoussaye resorted to a couple of hand slaps on his filly’s neck. The margin was a deceivingly comfortable nose, prompting Eddie to grin and shrug, “It was McCarron. I really didn’t need a whip.” Tough room.
- Anyone who doesn’t think COREY NAKATANI made the difference in winning the 1996 Distaff at Woodbine aboard Jewel Princess had better look again. The field was small, just six. The other five were ridden by men either in the Hall of Fame or on their way. As such, it was a race in which every change of pace or trajectory was like a move on a 3-dimensional chess board at 35 miles per hour. Nakatani took full advantage of his inside post to save all possible ground until that moment, at the three-sixteenths mark, when a gap appeared between Clear Mandate, under Craig Perret, and Serena’s Song, with Gary Stevens. Jewel Princess jumped at Nakatani’s command, and the race was cleanly theirs.
- All praise be to Michael Dickinson and the job he did to get Da Hoss back to the peak of his considerable powers for the 1998 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs. One small race in two years? Ridiculous. But then Dickinson had to step back and let JOHN VELAZQUEZ finish the job, which he did with a combination of surgical precision and grace under considerable fire. To that point in a career that soon soared, Velazquez had ridden in the BC Mile exactly once. But there he was, buried inside and midpack on the first turn of a 14-horse rugby scrum, keeping his cool and giving his tough old partner the best possible trip. Once clear on the final turn, Velazquez set sail for the finish, only to be headed and passed by Alex Solis and the stubborn Hawksley Hill. The sight of Da Hoss and Velazquez coming on again to win by a head is one of those memories that, thank goodness, refuses to fade (see video below).
- Macho Uno’s victory in the 2000 Juvenile at Churchill Downs was noteworthy in large part for the colts he defeated. Point Given finished second and Street Cry was third, fair warning of great careers to come. Without JERRY BAILEY, however, Macho Uno might have been just another pretty gray face in the crowd. Bailey had the colt in the first flight early, drafting the pace-setting Arabian Light. When the serious part began, Bailey shifted outside the leader and hit the front with a sixteenth of a mile to go in the long Churchill straight, knowing full well something would be coming. That something was a massive Point Given, closing like a boulder rolling downhill. Macho Uno shifted right near the finish, but Bailey held on tight to win by a nose.
- The Juvenile again comes up, this time in reference to the small field of eight that assembled at Lone Star Park in 2004. FRANKIE DETTORI, then a lad of 33, was riding Wilko, a 28/1 longshot trained in England by Jeremy Noseda. The last time Dettori had ridden a winner on American dirt was in December of 1990 at Hollywood Park. And yet there he was, giving his colt an ideal, trouble-free journey outside horses, to a point on the final turn where they were in the thick of contention. Right about there, Afleet Alex surged past Wilko, putting him squarely in his place. Fun while it lasted, right? But then, much to Dettori’s surprise, the leaders idled in the final half furlong. To his credit, Frankie did not relax, and neither did Wilko. One-paced and loving it, they won going away.
- Half of the 14 versions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint have been run on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita. It’s a hoot – half slalom, half haunted house – that requires a cool head and a complete disregard for personal safety to succeed in a 14-horse field careening down the hill for a million bucks. That’s why the rock-ribbed veteran RICHIE MIGLIORE was the man for the moment aboard Desert Code in 2008. At 36/1, they were the longest shot in the field, through which Migliore slipped and slid without missing a beat until, with the line fast approaching, the only hurdle left was catching Dettori and the classy Godolphin colt, Diabolical. They did, to win by a half (see video below).
- As the 2013 Breeders’ Cup dawned, GARY STEVENS had tried 13 times to win the Classic and had failed 13 times. After several retirements and comebacks, he knew every chance could be his last, which is why his victory aboard Mucho Macho Man at Santa Anita forever will resonate as one of the great Breeders’ Cup rides. It was a serene, textbook piece of work aboard a generous partner, stalking the lead until they wanted it, at which point Stevens simply coaxed MMM to a 3-horse blanket finish with perfect balance and a couple of mild underhand taps. The margins were a nose and a head, but let us not dwell upon the fact that the combined age of the two other jockeys in the photo, Luis Saez and Joseph O’Brien, were a combined 41 years of age. Let us celebrate instead the 50 years owned by Stevens that day, and how he put them to historic use.
- Finally, for those who wonder why IRAD ORTIZ has been able to win the last three Shoemaker Awards, Shamrock Rose is a large part of the answer. Sure, anybody can win with locks like Bricks And Mortar, Golden Pal, or Newspaperofrecord. Shamrock Rose, on the other hand, was 25/1 in the 2018 Filly & Mare Sprint at Keeneland, and Ortiz was her sixth rider of the year. Breaking from post 14, Ortiz popped the gate, allowed the rest to run on, then angled purposefully to the rail in plenty of time to save ground on the turn. Displaying the court sense of a Jordan or a James, Ortiz picked the right horses to follow and went through gaps that closed in his wake until, in the final jumps, his filly was the first of four heads on the wire at the end of the 6½ furlongs (see video above).