Edited press release
First-time winner Julien Leparoux, the nation’s win leader and the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey of 2006, will join repeat winners Dale Romans and Ken and Sarah Ramsey as the honorees in the 17th Kentucky Thoroughbred Media awards, which are presented annually to Kentucky racing’s statistical leaders.
The 2006 Kentucky Thoroughbred Media awards honor the trainer, jockey and owner who collect the largest number of victories during the 2006 calendar year at Kentucky racetracks. The awards are co-sponsored by KTM and The Jockey Club Information Systems. The latter provides statistical information that determines each year’s honorees. The awards are based on total victories in each category at Churchill Downs, Ellis Park, Keeneland, Kentucky Downs and Turfway Park.
Leparoux, Romans and the Ramseys will receive their KTM awards for 2006 on Saturday, March 24, during the racing program headlined by the $500,000 Lane’s End Stakes (grade II) at Turfway in Florence, Ky.
Leparoux, a 23-year-old native of Chantilly, France, easily earned his first KTM “Jockey of the Year” award by piloting 360 winners at Kentucky tracks during a year in which he won or shared riding titles at Churchill (spring meet), Keeneland (tied for spring meet) and Turfway (winter/spring and fall meets). The honor for Leparoux snaps a string of three consecutive KTM awards by Rafael Bejarano, the 2006 KTM runner-up who finished the year with 146 Kentucky victories. Leparoux completed 2006 with an overall total of 403 victories at U.S. tracks.
Romans earned his second consecutive KTM “Trainer of the Year” award after his horses scored 105 victories at Kentucky tracks during 2006. The Louisville native saddled a record 43 winners during the 2006 spring meet at Churchill, a total that earned Romans an eighth “leading trainer” title at his hometown track. Greg Foley finished second to Romans with 65 victories at Kentucky tracks in 2006.
The Ramseys, honored with an Eclipse Award as racing’s leading owners in 2004, were honored as the KTM “Owner of the Year” for a seventh consecutive year. Horses that carried the Ramseys’ familiar red and white silks won 47 races at Kentucky tracks in 2006. The Ramseys earned “leading owner” titles at Churchill Downs, where they won the spring-meet title with a record 21 victories, and the spring crown at Keeneland, their fourth title at the Lexington track. Overbrook Farm finished second in that category with 26 victories on the year.
The awards will be presented after the fifth race on the 12-race program at Turfway. All KTM members, other media members, friends, and those connected with the winners are invited to participate.
Kentucky Thoroughbred Media is an organization of print and electronic journalists, photojournalists, and publicists who work in Kentucky’s racing and breeding industries. The Jockey Club Information Systems is a multimedia information and service provider incorporated in 1989 as a wholly owned subsidiary of The Jockey Club.