Two-time defending
Eclipse champion jockey
Ramon Dominguez won his fourth straight riding
title on The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) circuit while
trainers
Rick Dutrow, Jr. and
David Jacobson emerged
in a tie for leading trainer as 2012 came to an end.
Dominguez, who returned
to riding on December 26 after taking a month off to recuperate from a
bruised foot, closed out the year with a pair of four-win days at
Aqueduct Racetrack to total 322 victories at the
Big A, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course. In 2012, the 36-year-old
jockey twice rode six winners, on July 22 and September 2 at the Spa,
and had four five-win days as well, on February 15, June 9, November 18
and on his birthday, November 24, including
Grade 1 wins aboard Stay Thirsty in the Cigar Mile and Dance Card in
the Gazelle. At
Saratoga, he set a meet record for victories with 68, including the Grade 1 Travers dead-heat win aboard Alpha.
Nationally, Dominguez
led the country in purses won with $25,582,252, bolstered by his victory
aboard Little Mike in the Arlington Million and the $3 million
Breeders’ Cup Turf, two of his nine Grade 1 wins for
the year.
Cornelio Velasquez was second in the NYRA standings with 182 wins.
The race for the
trainers’ title came down to the final day of racing in 2012, with
Jacobson winning races 5 and 6 with Driven By Solar and Perimele to take
a one-race advantage over Dutrow, 110-109. The lead
was short-lived, however, as Dutrow came right back and won race 7 with
Gallant Fields to tie at 110-110.
It was the first
year-end training title for Jacobson, whose father, the late Howard
“Buddy” Jacobson, was a five-time leading trainer in New York in the
1960s, and the fourth for Dutrow, who also won in 2001,
2002 and 2005.
Defending Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher was third with 107 wins.
With 67 victories,
Michael Dubb earned his second leading owner title, having also won in
2010. Drawing Away Stable was second with 59 wins.