Jockeys Ortiz, Gaffalione, Egan Set to Make Season Debut Thursday

Emisael Jaramillo Enjoying Fast Start to Championship Meet
Promising Juvenile Maidens Featured in Friday’s Sixth Race

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Two-time defending leading rider Irad Ortiz Jr., fellow Eclipse Award winner Tyler Gaffalione and British champion David Egan will make their first appearances of the 2025-2026 Championship Meet when the country’s premier winter stand resumes with a nine-race program Thursday.

First race post time is 12:20 p.m.

Ortiz, fresh off topping the Churchill Downs fall meet standings, is named in four races Thursday and seven on Friday to begin the quest for his record-extending seventh Championship Meet title, having broken the mark set by Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, who won five in a row from 2011-2012 to 2015-2016. Ortiz also surpassed Castellano’s single-season standard with 140 wins in 2020-2021.

A 33-year-old native of Puerto Rico and five-time Eclipse Award winner (2018-20, 2022-23), Ortiz ranked first with 109 wins and $6.6 million in purse earnings last winter at Gulfstream with 12 stakes wins led by White Abarrio in the Ghostzapper (G3) and $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) and Mindframe in the Gulfstream Park Mile (G2).

Gaffalione, born and raised in Davie, Fla., is named in three races Thursday and Friday and six on Saturday including Summer Cause for trainer Miguel Clement in the $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Handicap scheduled for two miles on the grass.

Last winter the 31-year-old Gaffalione, the Eclipse champion apprentice of 2015, was second at the Championship Meet with 74 wins and third with nearly $4.2 million in purse earnings whose stakes wins were highlighted by Spirit of St Louis in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1).

Based in England, where he was the champion apprentice of 2017, Egan was born in Kildare, Ireland and returns for the third straight winter. He is named in five races Thursday, four races Friday and five on Saturday including stakes-placed I Know I Know in the Jerkens for 3-year-olds and up.

Egan, 26, won 18 races and $707,450 in purses from 149 mounts at the 2024-2025 Championship Meet before returning for the British season. The winner of several major international Group 1 races including the Saudi Cup, Dubai Sheema Classic, Irish St. Leger and the St. Leger in England, he is a contract rider for Kia Joorabchian’s AMO Racing through 2028.

Soon to arrive at Gulfstream are Hall of Famer John Velazquez, North America’s all-time leader with more than $513 million in purses earnings, and Corey Lanerie, a lifetime winner of 5,150 races.

Jockey Rajiv Maragh sits one win shy of 2,000 for his career. He is named in two races Thursday, five on Friday and six on Saturday.

Emisael Jaramillo Enjoying Fast Start to Championship Meet

No one has gotten off to a hotter start at the 2025-2026 Championship Meet than jockey Emisael Jaramillo.

Entering the first full month of the 84-day stand, which opened Thanksgiving Day, the 48-year-old Jaramillo leads the rider standings with seven wins and more than $498,160 in purses earned from 21 mounts.

What’s more, Jaramillo has won three of the meet’s first six stakes – the FSS My Dear Girl with Mythical, Sabal Palm and Islamorada overnight handicaps respectively with Prevent and Great Venezuela.

“I am getting opportunities and I have been able to take advantage of them,” Jaramillo said. “I have more experience now than when I was 25 and coming from Venezuela. It’s been a long time I’ve been riding in the United States and the results are coming because I am getting good opportunities. When you have that you can show your ability.”

Jaramillo was already an accomplished rider with 13 year-end titles in Venezuela, where he is the all-time leading rider with more than 4,000 wins. He made intermittent trips to the U.S. between 2000 and 2012 before arriving full-time in 2015, and owns nearly 1,900 wins and more than $60.7 million in purses earned in North America.

Since his arrival Jaramillo has called Gulfstream Park home, where he has become a year-round force. A three-time Venezuelan Triple Crown winner, he owns 18 graded-stakes wins in the U.S. including four with X.Y. Jet and most recently with Mythical in the Aug. 3 Adirondack (G3) at Saratoga.

Jaramillo was particularly thrilled to get the call on Great Venezuela from trainer Victor Barboza Jr. for her ninth career win. She has been ridden in 13 of her 16 career starts by Leonel Reyes, who is out indefinitely following a Nov. 2 spill at Gulfstream.

“I have wanted for a long time the opportunity to ride Great Venezuela. Leonel has been her official rider but unfortunately he had an accident a few weeks ago. Hopefully he is back soon,” Jaramillo said. “I am very thankful for the opportunity.”

Jaramillo won 40 races and nearly $1.5 million in purses at the 2024-2025 Championship Meet. Among his victories were Ashima in the Sunshine Filly & Mare Turf and K.C. Chief in the Mucho Gusto starter handicap.

“Every jockey brings their own skills and when you get the opportunity you can show them,” he said. “I just want to work hard and do the best I can for every trainer and owner that gives me the chance to ride their horses.”

Promising Juvenile Maidens Featured in Friday’s Sixth Race

A field of seven 2-year-olds go a mile in Friday’s sixth race, and it could feature a couple of promising colts to keep an eye on come the 2026 campaign.

Calumet Farm’s Vino Vici will try to break his maiden in his fourth attempt. The son of Vino Rosso was third in two sprint races at Saratoga this summer before finishing second, albeit by 20 lengths, to Further Ado, who went on to win the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs. Vino Vici, trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, gets Irad Ortiz Jr. in the saddle.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. will saddle The Pulse, a $110,000 son of two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin who finished third in his debut at seven furlongs Nov. 15, while trainer Jose D’Angelo sends out Diamond Knife, a $180,000 son of Violence that ran third in his debut Nov. 1.

Making his debut is Freddie B, a son of Kantharos trained by Ken McPeek.