Two-time Eclipse Award winning jockey Ramon Dominguez has been selected as the 63rd winner of the prestigious Santa Anita George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.
It is expected Dominguez will fly west to Santa Anita from his Florida base at Gulfstream Park in March to accept the award, which is announced following a vote of jockeys nationwide.
The Woolf Award honors a rider each year whose career and personal character earns esteem for the individual and the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing.
Retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who won the Woolf Award in 1996, made the announcement from Santa Anita’s winner’s circle on HRTV during the races Feb. 26.
Dominguez, a 35-year-old native of Venezuela, outpolled finalists Corey Lanerie, Martin Pedroza, DeShawn Parker, and Scott Stevens (Gary’s older brother).
The nation’s leading jockey by number of wins in 2001 and 2003, Dominguez has won back-to-back Eclipse Awards as North America’s champion jockey in 2010 and 2011.
Dominguez has two Breeders’ Cup wins to his credit, winning the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Turf (gr. IT) with Better Talk Now and most recently, the 2011 Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I) last November at Churchill Downs with Hansen.
Born Nov. 24, 1976 in Caracas, Venezuela, Dominguez began riding at Hialeah Park in Florida in 1996. He has become a dominant force in New York, with 13 New York Racing Association riding titles to his credit dating back to 2007-08. Dominguez resides in New York with his wife Sharon and son Alexander.
The award was created to honor and memorialize the legendary jockey George “The Iceman” Woolf, who was regarded as one of the greatest big money riders of his era. He died following a spill at Santa Anita Jan. 3, 1946. The Woolf trophy is a replica of the full-size statue of the late jockey that is located in Santa Anita’s Paddock Gardens area.
First presented by Santa Anita in 1950, the Woolf Award was won last year by Garrett Gomez.
Ramon Dominguez
Wally Skalij