Javier Castellano exceeded his own previous single-season earnings record as his mounts in 2015 earned $28,120,767, surpassing his previous mark of $26,219,907 in 2013, the year in which he was honored with the first of two consecutive Eclipse Awards. He was also leading rider by number of wins in 2015 with 344, with a 23% win rate from his 1,507 mounts.
The 38-year-old Venezuelan won 17 grade I races, and included among the horses he rode to grade I success were Keen Ice , Stopchargingmaria, Liam's Map , Jack Milton , Twilight Eclipse, and Honor Code .
Castellano and Stopchargingmaria teamed to win the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, and he was aboard Liam's Map for his victory in the Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. Jack Milton and the jockey won the Maker's 46 Mile Stakes, and he piloted Twilight Agenda to victory in the Man o' War Stakes. On Honor Code, Castellano won the NYRA.com Metropolitan Handicap and Whitney Stakes.
But Castellano's finest moment of 2015 perhaps came at Saratoga Race Course when he booted home Keen Ice to win the Travers Stakes and end Triple Crown winner American Pharoah's eight-race win streak.
Castellano, the son of a jockey, whose brother Abel Jr. also rides on the East Coast, began his career in his native country in 1996 and came to the U.S. the following year. Based initially in South Florida, Castellano has ridden on the New York circuit since 2001.
Other top horses for which he was the regular rider include Horse of the Year Ghostzapper and champion 3-year-old male Bernardini .
Voting totals in outstanding jockey division: Javier Castellano, 184; Victor Espinoza, 70; Joe Bravo, 1; Pedro Monterrey, Jr., 1; Irad Ortiz, Jr., 1; Joel Rosario, 1; John Velazquez, 1; voter abstentions, 2.
