Sunday turned into Tyler Gaffalione day at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky. The 30-year-old jockey has been in peak form since returning to the saddle in July following a broken ankle caused by a spill at Gulfstream Park in March. Gaffalione visited the winner’s circle six times on Sunday at Ellis, including four stakes wins on the day.

Since his comeback, Gaffalione has been winning at a 29% clip and steadily climbing the Equibase Leaderboard, moving up six spots last week to 17^th with $6,403,630 in purse earnings this year.

Colonial Downs’ Festival of Racing card delivered a fantastic Saturday of racing, featuring seven stakes races headlined by the 42^nd running of the Grade 1 Arlington Million Stakes, which holds a place in the sport’s history as the first million-dollar Thoroughbred horse race in North America.

Fort Washington, a 6-year-old son of War Front, edged clear to win the Arlington Million by a half-length over a determined Grand Sonata. The Arlington MIllion was his third graded stakes victory of the year and first career Grade 1 victory. With the lion’s share of the $1 million purse, Fort Washington rocketed into the top 100 and is now 16^th in the overall standings and sixth in the older male division with $893,300 in 2025 purse earnings.

El Cordobes winning Sword Dancer. (Adam Coglianese/NYRA)

El Cordobes, a 4-year-old gelding by Frankel, dazzled in his North American debut on Saturday, threading through rivals under Flavien Prat to win the Grade 1 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer Stakes by a half-length at Saratoga Race Course, securing an automatic entry into the $5 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf Nov. 1 at Del Mar. He earned the highest Equibase Speed Figure of any horse across North America last week, posting a 119 in his first start and first win in the states for trainer Charlie Appleby. With just one start on this side of the Atlantic, the Irish-bred already ranks 70th in the overall standings with $412,500 in 2025 North American earnings.

Prat remains on top of the jockey standings for the eighth consecutive week, surpassing $22.2 million in 2025 earnings after taking nine trips to the winner’s circle and amassing $1,057,650 in earnings last week. Irad Ortiz Jr., Jose Ortiz, and Luis Saez remain second, third, and fourth, respectively. Junior Alvarado moved up one spot into fifth last week with $11,636,135 in purse earnings this year following two graded stakes victories last week, including the Arlington Million.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert surpassed $7 million in 2025 earnings and has joined the top 10 on the Equibase Leaderboard. Last week, Baffert won at an incredible 75% with six wins from eight starts, including graded stakes wins in the Best Pal Stakes with Desert Gate and the Sorrento Stakes with Himika. Baffert is winning at 34% this year with 62 wins and ranks 10^th in the standings with $7,200,880 in earnings.  

• Last week’s top trainer by earnings — Shug McGaughey: 1 win, $718,400
• Last week’s top jockey by earnings — Tyler Gaffalione: 10 wins, $1,278,873
• Last week’s top Equibase Speed Figure — El Cordobes: 119 Equibase Speed Figure

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.