Best Jockey ESPY Award

The Best Jockey ESPY Award, known alternatively as the Jockey of the Year ESPY Award, has been presented annually since 1994 to the thoroughbred horse racing jockey, irrespective of nationality or gender, adjudged to be the best of those riding in the United States in a given calendar year.

Between 1994 and 2004, the award voting panel comprised variously fans; sportswriters and broadcasters, sports executives, and retired sportspersons, termed collectively experts; and ESPN personalities, but balloting thereafter has been exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.

Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in June and reflect performance from the June previous.[1] The award was not awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

List of winners

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Year Jockey Principal nation
of citizenship
1994 Mike E. Smith  United States
1995 Chris McCarron  United States
1996 Jerry Bailey  United States
1997 Jerry Bailey (2)  United States
1998 Gary Stevens  United States
1999 Kent Desormeaux  United States
2000 Chris Antley  United States
2001 Kent Desormeaux  United States
2002 Victor Espinoza  Mexico
2003 José A. Santos  Chile
2004 Stewart Elliott  Canada
2005 Jeremy Rose  United States
2006 Edgar Prado  Peru
2007 Calvin Borel  United States
2008 Kent Desormeaux  United States
2009 Calvin Borel (2)  United States
2010 Calvin Borel (3)  United States
2011 John Velazquez  United States
( Puerto Rico)
2012 Mario Gutierrez  Mexico
2013 Joel Rosario  Dominican Republic
2014 Victor Espinoza  Mexico
2015 Victor Espinoza (2)  Mexico
2016 Mario Gutierrez  Mexico
2017 John Velazquez  United States
( Puerto Rico)
2018 José Ortiz  United States
2019 Mike Smith  United States
2020 Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021 Joel Rosario  Dominican Republic
2022 José Ortiz (2)  United States

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Because of the rescheduling of the ESPY Awards ceremony, the award presented in 2002 was given in consideration of performance between February 2001 and June 2002.

References

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