News Releases

Friday, January 02, 2004Contact: Bob Curran Jr. (212) 521-5326
Equibase Releases Final Lists of Top Trainers, Jockeys, Owners & Horses in 2003

Robert Frankel, Jerry Bailey and Michael Gill head the individual lists of the top 100 trainers, jockeys and owners respectively by North American earnings in 2003, according to final statistics released today by Equibase Company LLC, the Thoroughbred industry’s Official database for racing information.

Pleasantly Perfect, who won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, topped all Thoroughbreds with 2003 North American earnings of $2,470,000. Following Pleasantly Perfect was Mineshaft with $2,209,686.

The year-end compilations, distributed by Equibase each year, include all Thoroughbred racing in North America. The top 100 North American leaders in each category are accessible through www.equibase.com, as is a second set of “international” leader lists that includes the results of the nine races of the World Series Racing Championships contested outside North America.

With those international earnings added in, Moon Ballad (IRE) heads the list of leading Thoroughbreds while Frankel, Bailey and Gill remain atop their respective categories.

In 2003, Robert Frankel saddled 114 winners from 411 starters to establish a new North American single season earnings record for trainers with $19,143,289. D. Wayne Lukas set the previous record of $17,842,358 in 1988. Todd Pletcher finished second with 199 wins from 826 starters and earnings of $12,356,924.

Completing the top 10 trainers were: Steven Asmussen, $11,725,782 (452 wins/1,949 starts); Richard Mandella, $9,869,548 (51/253); Bob Baffert, $9,442,281 (127/674); Scott Lake, $9,152,959 (454/2,009); William Mott, $6,866,320 (138/718); Doug O’Neill, $6,438,799 (133/760); Jerry Hollendorfer, $6,260,305 (282/1,216); and Mark Shuman, $5,633,150 (225/1,105).

For the third consecutive year, Jerry Bailey established a new North American earnings mark for jockeys with $23,354,960, shattering his record total from 2002 by $4,083,146. Bailey piloted 206 winners from 776 mounts. Edgar Prado finished second with 259 wins from 1,478 mounts and earnings of $18,475,582.

Rounding out the list of top 10 jockeys were: Alex Solis, $16,304,252 (203/1,115); Patrick Valenzuela, $15,697,352 (287/1,447); John Velasquez, $15,425,501 (306/1,308); Pat Day, $13,378,292 (215/985); Jose Santos, $11,472,287 (176/1,157); Ramon Dominguez, $11,359,767 (453/1,627); Todd Kabel, $11,323,313 (160/836); and Patrick Husbands, $11,168,817 (168/882).

Michael Gill topped the 2003 North American leading owners’ list with 425 wins from 2,235 starts and earnings of $9,236,530. Runner-up was Stronach Stable whose runners won 126 races from 622 starts for earnings of $7,289,114.

Completing the list of top 10 owners were: Juddmonte Farms, Inc., $6,265,030 (33/122); Edmund Gann, $5,848,681 (25/83); Richard Englander, $5,359,539 (227/1,182); Eugene and Laura Melnyk, $4,123,765 (92/455); John Franks, $4,077,950 (143/984); Sam-Son Farms, $3,864,116 (44/201); The Thoroughbred Corporation, $3,486,782 (44/227); and Gustav Schickedanz, $3,361,790 (29/106).

Equibase Company is a partnership between The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America and serves as the Thoroughbred industry’s Official database for racing information. In addition to the year-end rankings of the top trainers, jockeys, owners and horses, the Company’s web site, www.equibase.com, features daily rankings of the top 100 by category for the current year as well as an ever-increasing menu of racing information and handicapping products for handicappers of every skill level.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Equibase leader lists are published as a service to the industry and their compilation is consistent with years past. As has been the industry standard since the mid-1960s, when racing and pedigree data were first stored electronically, Canadian earnings are not converted to U.S. dollars. However, Equibase Company and The Jockey Club recently announced plans to perform the software modifications necessary in 2004 to enable the conversion of Canadian earnings to their equivalent amount in U.S. dollars beginning Jan. 1, 2005.