Eclipse Award winners express gratitude

A beaming Todd Pletcher proudly holds aloft his record 7th Eclipse Award (Harold Roth/Horsephotos.com) For the second consecutive year, defending champions Javier Castellano, Todd Pletcher and Ken and Sarah Ramsey picked up individual Eclipse Awards at the 44th annual dinner and ceremony held Saturday night at Gulfstream’s Sport of Kings Theater. Castellano earned the Eclipse as leading rider for the second consecutive year. The 37-year-old Venezuelan captured his third straight title as Gulfstream’s top jockey last year and finished 2014 with 315 wins and more than $25 million in purse earnings. Among his victories was the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) on Dayatthespa (City Zip), voted champion turf female. “I have to thank God for giving me the ability to ride horses. I’ve been very blessed,” Castellano said. “I truly want to thank all the owners and trainers that gave me the opportunity to ride their horses. From the claiming races to the graded stakes, they are all very important to me. “I have to thank my agent, Matt Muzikar, for all his hard work over the past year. Together we have had a lot of success. This business is not easy and we all make a lot of sacrifices, but we appreciate the continued support. The Award means so much to me and is quite an honor.” Pletcher, 47, earned his record seventh Eclipse Award as leading trainer since 2004 and second in a row. Winner of an unprecedented 11 consecutive Championship Meet titles, he ended 2014 with 240 wins and nearly $22.5 million in purse earnings.

“I was driving to the barn (Saturday) morning and sort of
reflecting back a little bit,” Pletcher said. “I was thinking about December of
1995 when I was driving to Hialeah because my Gulfstream stall application was
rejected, and rightfully so. I had seven horses, four of them were owned by my
dad, and they were all maidens. At the time, I never could have even dreamed
that even being nominated for an award like this was possible.

“I’ve just been so fortunate. I have such a terrific wife and family at home,
supportive parents, unbelievable staff and, most importantly, a lot of great
owners that have given me an opportunity with some really special horses.”

Largely on the strength of their stallion and former
champion grass horse Kitten’s Joy, the Ramseys, winners of the past two
Championship Meet owner titles, were voted their second straight Eclipse Award
as both leading owner and breeder, winning 153 races and banking more than $10.5
million in 2014.

Trained by Gulfstream Park-based Wesley Ward, Judy the
Beauty (Ghostzapper) earned the Eclipse Award as champion female sprinter. The
six-year-old
chestnut mare won four of five starts in 2014, all graded, including the
Madison (G1) at Keeneland and Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Santa
Anita Park.

It was the first Eclipse Award as a trainer for Ward, 46, a
former jockey who won the award as leading apprentice rider in 1984.

“It’s unbelievable. It took me 30 years and a hundred
pounds to get back here,” Ward quipped.

“This has just been an unbelievable ride with this filly. She’s named after a
very special lady, my mother’s best friend that died of cancer a number of years
back. It took me a long time to get one that I could name, a yearling or what
have you, for a very special lady. She’s a very special horse. She’s overcome a
lot of adversities and she finally got there.”

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