Horse Racing News is the source of thoroughbred racing information with horse racing odds, betting tips, racing picks, race results, and handicapping. Latest news and articles on top horse racing contenders, jockeys, trainers, three-year-olds, race tracks, and major stakes races such as the Triple Crown races: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes as well as the Breeders' Cup horse races.Hall of Fame Jockey Gary Stevens To Announce 2008 George Woolf Memorial Winner
Posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens will announce the winner of the 2008 Santa Anita George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award this Saturday on HRTV. The announcement will be made at approximately 3:15 p.m. PST.
Five jockeys were selected as candidates for this year’s prestigious Woof Award, which has been presented annually by Santa Anita Park since 1950: Roberto Gonzalez, Aaron Gryder, Randall Meier, Richard Migliore and Mario Pino.
Named for one of the greatest big-money riders of all time, George “The Iceman” Woolf won the inaugural running of the Santa Anita Handicap in 1935 aboard Azucar and won two legendary match races in 1938 aboard the immortal Seabiscuit at Pimlico versus War Admiral and later that year at Del Mar against Ligaroti.
George Woolf was unseated during the running of the fourth race at Santa Anita on January 3, 1946, and died the following morning at St. Luke’s Hospital in Pasadena.
The Woolf Award is one of the most coveted trophies in all of racing, as it honors riders whose careers and personal character earn esteem for the individual and the sport of Thoroughbred racing. The winner is selected by a vote the nation’s jockeys and receives a trophy which is a replica of the life-size statue of George Woolf which is displayed in Santa Anita’s paddock gardens.
Gary Stevens, a winner of the Woolf Award in 1996, and currently an analyst on HRTV, portrayed Woolf in the blockbuster 2003 movie titled “Seabiscuit.”
Stevens joined HRTV on January 1, 2008 and he was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 1997, at the age of 34. A winner of more than 5,000 races over 27 years, Stevens won three Kentucky Derby titles and he won a record nine Santa Anita Derbies.
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"Hall of Fame Jockey Gary Stevens To Announce 2008 George Woolf Memorial Winner" was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Horse Racing Industry, Jockeys, Race Tracks News, Santa Anita Track, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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