Despite just turning 17 last March, a shy, soft-spoken kid from Panama, who tips the scales at 107 pounds, carried the weight of being labeled worthy of an Eclipse Award from the very start.

When Yedsit Hazlewood’s sister Daybellis sent Jose Corrales a video of her brother riding horses around a year ago, the retired jockey-turned trainer saw nothing but promise in his fellow Panamanian. Corrales, who has mentored other Eclipse Award-winning apprentices, made what, for others, would be an outlandish prediction that Hazlewood would win the most sought-after award for fledgling jockeys.

An often lonely path for 17-year-old in a new country (Eclipse Sportswire)

After Hazlewood won the first race he rode at the Laffit Pincay Jr. Technical Jockey Training Academy, Corrales shared the video with the school’s namesake, Pincay, and Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero. Both were equally excited about the rider’s abilities and future.

A plan was set in motion to get Hazlewood to the United States after graduating from the school. Corrales would be his legal guardian. He would rent a room with Maryland Jockey Club paddock judge Mario Verge. He would ride every race like it was a $5,000 claimer. The prediction of potentially winning the Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice would be ever-present for Hazlewood, even though he had no real idea what it would mean to walk in the footsteps of riders like Chris McCarron and Kent Desormeaux. He would share a jockey’s room with previous Eclipse winners Alberto Delgado, who won it in 1982, and 2013 winner Victor Carrasco.

Two days after his 17^th birthday, Hazlewood rode his first race in America, but it took him another 13 attempts before Addy's Laddy T N T would secure him his first win on April 4 at Laurel Park. The victories and the mentoring from Corrales came at a rapid pace for Hazlewood from there. Hazlewood reeled off 22 wins before a car crash threatened his life and his dream and put him on the sidelines for more than two months. His agent, John DiNatale, recalls it was a dark time for a kid so young. “I think it was a wakeup call for him and he realized what he could lose and almost lost,” DiNatale said.  

Faith lifted Hazlewood when faced with adversity (Eclipse Sportswire)

Corrales looked inwardly at his own faith while he was watching his protege recover from the near-fatal accident. “I believe in God so much and I say, you know, maybe this is something that God show and see if he can come back,” Corrales said. “I mean to come back the way the accident was, he should have been dead, he should have been dead and to be able to come back on and be in this short of a time with this much winners and all this success, is a miracle.”

For all his relative fluency in riding horses, Hazlewood still fights the occasional isolation of not speaking English as well as he wants. He is learning, but ultimately just says, “Digame,” as he flashes a smile.

Hazlewood has turned to letting DiNatale do the work and letting his killer instincts on the back of a Thoroughbred do the talking. That needs no translation.

He returned to full riding action in time for the 2025 Maryland State Fair Meet at Timonium and rattled off 13 wins at a 39% win rate to earn his first riding title. Hazlewood was fulfilling the prophecy of jockey whisperer Corrales, but the lost time riding and restrictions against him riding in some jurisdictions because he wasn’t 18 years old yet made every three- and four-win day still seem like an uphill battle.

Success on the racetrack came naturally for Hazlewood (Eclipse Sportswire)

Not being able to double up and ride somewhere on the Mid-Atlantic race circuit during the day and pick up more mounts across the state line at Charles Town Races at night caused Hazlewood and DiNatale to put a lot of miles on their cars finding mounts from Colonial Downs in Virginia up to Aqueduct in New York. The grind of getting up early to exercise horses and build relationships with trainers, then hitting the workout room attached to the jockey’s room, riding 8-10 horses a day, and then doing it all over again, day after day, can lend itself to loneliness for any jockey, let alone a 17-year-old.

“My family has supported me 100%. Most of the time I'm with them,” Hazlewood said. Parts of his family are in the U.S., but live close to two hours away. “But it's my career, it's what I've dreamed of and if I want to be successful in life. You have to do things for yourself.”

Hazlewood has wanted to be a jockey since he was 10. His brother is a jockey, and his uncle was a trainer. When given the choice of jockeys to emulate, Hazlewood didn’t pick anyone famous or legendary. “My favorite jockey is my brother, Angel Rodriguez. I always try to ride like him and always improve,” Hazlewood said. “We have the same saddle, the same everything. I've always wanted to ride like him.”   

While the view for outsiders is that Hazlewood has the drive and talent to be a great jockey, it is a journey a teenager can’t make alone. Corrales is still a full-time trainer and family man. DiNatale sees Hazlewood in the morning and facilitates morning exercise mounts, race mounts, travel, and licensing, but he can still only do so much. Even though much of Hazelwood’s family has moved nearby and does their best to support him, there are parts he still must do alone. That is when Hazlewood leans on a different family, the other jockeys around him.

Hazlewood cherishes the support from his peers (Eclipse Sportswire)

“The truth is that most of them, José Torrealba, Mychel Sánchez, have always supported me. They've given me advice, Angel Cruz, Julio Hernández, Víctor Carrasco,” Hazlewood said, reflecting on brotherhood among the jockey colonies he floats between. “They've always supported me and told me things as they are.”

When Hazlewood puts on his riding helmet, a switch flips. At many other points, he is still just a kid. He wants to play FIFA Futbol 2026 and hasn’t felt the weight of paying bills, buying a house, or any of the true examples of “adulting” that petrify most. He wants to laugh, find a girl, and listen to Myke Towers’ “Lo Logre.” When the riding helmet goes on though, he clears the mechanism and is all business.     

Hazlewood is focused on riding every race, just as Corrales has taught him. As promised, the wins have come, winning enough races to get recognized and wind up riding with the best jockeys in the world. In his first trip to Aqueduct, he won a race against top riders Jose Lezcano and Jaime Rodriguez.

The dichotomy of not riding to win, but just giving the best ride possible and letting the wins come, while gunning for the Eclipse Award at the same time, requires a great deal of faith.  

Hazlewood stays focused on racetrack success (Eclipse Sportswire)

“Since I got here, José Corrales has always told me that with God's help, we will be there in the big things,” Hazlewood said. “My goal has always been to win the Eclipse and get to big places like Saratoga.”

Hazlewood was doing well as an apprentice rider, but Pietro Moran in Canada had a clear lead in wins and purse earnings. It looked like the the two months missed from injury after his car flipped in an accident on the way back from New York might be a deciding difference in his having a chance at the Eclipse Award.

Then, October happened. It started on Maryland Million Day at Laurel Park. Hazlewood won five stakes or handicap races that day and he found another level of riding. Starting Oct. 31, the little kid from Panama went on the kind of streak about which most professional athletes only dream. He went 23 straight days riding at Laurel where he won at least one race. Hazlewood carried that momentum into December.

On Dec. 1, Pietro Moran had a 35-win lead on Hazlewood. Even with inclement weather forcing tracks in the Mid-Atlantic to close, he was able to ride 23 days before New Year’s Eve. He rode at Laurel, Parx Racing, and Aqueduct and posted wins on 18 of the days he rode. The 35 wins Hazlewood had in December brought him within three wins of Moran, with 270 less mounts. On performance alone, Hazlewood, Corrales, and DiNatale all thought Hazlewood had done enough. Across the jockey’s room, the refrain from everyone was the same, “If Yedsit doesn’t win, it’s a crime.” When the finalists for the outstanding apprentice were announced, there were no surprises – Chris Elliott and Moran, both sons of professional jockeys, and Hazlewood were named. Now, the wait.

Hazlewood headed to Florida early with his family and fellow Panamanian jockey Angel Morales. He was able to be a kid for a bit and visited Disney World, then he had to be the adult for an evening at the posh, upscale The Breakers in Palm Beach for the Eclipse Awards program. Dressed in a brown tuxedo, gold watch, and a bow tie that was as loose as one might expect on a 17-year-old, Hazlewood worked the room, glad-handing many who might be a future employer, while filled with the expectation and hope he might be handed some hardware in a few minutes.

Hazlewood congratulates Moran for his Eclipse Award win (Eclipse Sportswire)

Hazlewood didn’t have to wait long for the outstanding apprentice category to arrive. As they flashed the résumés of Elliott, Moran, and Hazlewood on the screens in the room, they showed Hazlewood as securing only 105 wins for the year. Apparently, they sent out early December yearly totals, and voters needed to find year-end totals on their own. While the significance of this hadn’t hit quite yet, DiNatale and Corrales, literally, saw the writing on the wall — those 35 wins in December were meaningless, those two months lost to a violent car crash meant everything, and Pietro Moran would win the Eclipse Award.

Corrales was seated next to Hazlewood in the back of the room at Table 31. As they watched Moran accept the award, Corrales explained what happened. They gathered themselves and ventured across the room to Moran’s table where Hazlewood congratulated him on the award. Hazlewood returned to his table and the seating arrangements had an impromptu change. He sat next to his mother, Yitzelka, posed for some pictures, and watched the rest of the industry, a different family he yearns to join, revel in their successes.

Hazlewood didn’t let the disappointment of not winning derail him. He got right back to work. He ranks third nationwide for wins among jockeys through March 5. He will turn 18 in a few weeks and because of the accident that cost him in 2025, Hazlewood will have until mid-June to maybe run it back as a contender for outstanding apprentice for 2026.

Plenty to smile about for Yedsit Hazlewood as he approaches his 18th birthday. (Eclipse Sportswire)