With the 2026 Breeders’ Cup less than three weeks away, the North American racing calendar has entered a relatively quiet stretch, with no remaining Challenge Series races on the schedule ahead of the World Championships on Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland. Even so, successful weeks by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. and trainer Mark Casse solidified their positions in the annual North American earnings standings as tabulated by Equibase.

Having recently missed nearly two months due a foot injury, Irad Ortiz Jr. does not have much of a chance at narrowing a substantial earnings gap behind his brother Jose and Flavien Prat, who are dueling for the 2026 earnings lead. Still, he led all jockeys last week by earnings with $823,039. Ortiz Jr. won at a 26% clip last week with eight victories and has been winning at a solid 21% since his comeback. Ortiz Jr. surpassed $27 million last week in North American earnings and remains in third in the jockey standings, nearly $4.7 million ahead of Tyler Gaffalione in fourth. Irad was voted Jockey of the Week for Oct. 5-11 as announced by the Jockeys’ Guild.

Jose Ortiz and Flavien Prat continue to battle for the lead, with Ortiz widening the gap just slightly. Last week, Jose Ortiz became the first jockey to surpass $37 million in North American earnings and is now $649,046 ahead of Prat in second. While Jose leads by earnings, Prat is ahead of Ortiz by wins, 265-261, and leads all jockeys by graded stakes wins (44) and stakes wins (70).

Mark Casse, a Hall of Fame member in both the U.S. and Canada, led all trainers last week by wins (11) and earnings ($832,856). Of his 11 wins, two were in stakes races on Sunday, the Franklin Stakes at Keeneland and the Display Stakes at Woodbine. (Irad Ortiz Jr. rode Time To Dazzle in the Franklin). While Casse cut Brad Cox’s 2026 earnings lead by over $600,000, Cox still remains in first by more than $4.1 million over Casse in second.

Among racehorses, a stellar performance by Tam Tam in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes Presented by Dixiana Saturday at Keeneland helped the 3-year-old filly move into fifth place in the earnings division for her age/sex group and 27^th on the overall leaderboard. Tam Tam, a bay daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, set the pace in the QEII and drove clear to win by 2 ½ lengths under a hand ride by Junior Alvarado. Tam Tam is 5-for-7 this year including a second and a third-place finish, all on turf, and she surpassed $1 million in earnings with her QEII victory.

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.