Equibase Leaderboard: Irad Ortiz Jr. Surpasses $16 Million in 2026 Earnings

May 27th, 2026 by Ben Kudla

Equibase, earnings, standings, leaderboard, jockey, trainer, horse racing, Irad Ortiz, Flavien Prat, million, Lone Star, Santa Anita, Jose Ortiz, Brad Cox, Steve Asmussen, Saffie Joseph, Forged Steel, Memorial Day, Formidable Man, Thought Process, ABR

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., shown aboard Rhetorical after winning the Old Forester Turf Classic May 2, surpassed the $16 million mark in 2026 North American earnings last week. (Eclipse Sportswire)

It was a relatively quiet racing week in North America prior to Memorial Day, which featured five graded stakes around the country including three at Santa Anita Park and a big day of racing at Lone Star Park in Texas. The biggest news of the week centered around five-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who set a North American earnings record in 2025 and off to another lucrative start in 2026.

With his win aboard Vive Veuve in the Ouija Board Distaff Stakes at Lone Star Park, Ortiz Jr. surpassed $16 million in earnings this year as tabluated by Equibase. He started the week at Churchill Downs with three consecutive wins on Thursday’s card and a win on Saturday’s card before traveling to Lone Star on Monday to win three more stakes races and finishing in the top three for all five of his starts.

Last year, Ortiz Jr. finished with $40,497,847 in North American earnings, less than $2,000 ahead of Flavien Prat's total of $40,496,178. Both surpassed the record for annual earnings by a jockey, and through May 27, Ortiz Jr. has $16,028,400 in 2026 earnings, over $1.4 million ahead of his brother, Jose Ortiz, with $14,585,365. Prat ranks third with $14,042,581 in earnings.

Among Memorial Day standouts at Santa Anita Park, Formidable Man won the Shoemaker Mile Stakes in his 2026 debut, Thought Process romped in the Gamely Stakes to improve to 2-for-2 this year, and Forged Steel won the Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes. From that trio, Thought Process made the biggest move into the upper reaches of horse earnings for 2026, jumping into 13^th in the older female division and 66^th in the overall standings.

The trainer standings remained the same as the week prior, with Brad Cox still on top, eclipsing $12 million in yearly earnings following three wins at three different tracks on Monday. Cox was just 1-for-16 for the week prior to Memorial Day and but ended 4-for-22 by the end of Monday’s racing action. Saffie Joseph Jr., trainer of Forged Steel, holds second in 2026 earnings with over $10.85 million, a little over $400,000 ahead of Steve Asmussen.

North American leaders lists for horses, jockeys, trainers and owners are available on equibase.com and you can filter the data to view by a wide variety of categories including age, sex, surface and race type.