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
| 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
Notes
- ^ 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
- Enumeration of past winners from HickokSports.com at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2002-02-23)