The Best Jockey ESPY Award, known alternatively as the Jockey of the Year ESPY Award, has been presented annually since 1994 to the thoroughbred horse racing jockey, irrespective of nationality or gender, adjudged to be the best of those riding in the United States in a given calendar year.
Between 1994 and 2004, the award voting panel comprised variously fans; sportswriters and broadcasters, sports executives, and retired sportspersons, termed collectively experts; and ESPN personalities, but balloting thereafter has been exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.
Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in June and reflect performance from the June previous.Because of the rescheduling of the ESPY Awards ceremony, the award presented in 2002 was given in consideration of performance between February 2001 and June 2002. The award was not awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
List of winners YearJockeyPrincipal nationof citizenship1994Mike E. Smith1995Chris McCarron1996Jerry Bailey1997Jerry Bailey (2)1998Gary Stevens1999Kent Desormeaux2000Chris Antley2001Kent Desormeaux2002Victor Espinoza2003José A. Santos2004Stewart Elliott2005Jeremy Rose2006Edgar Prado2007Calvin Borel2008Kent Desormeaux2009Calvin Borel (2)2010Calvin Borel (3)2011John Velazquez()2012Mario Gutierrez2013Joel Rosario2014Victor Espinoza2015Victor Espinoza (2)2016Mario Gutierrez2017John Velazquez()2018José Ortiz2019Mike Smith2020Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic2021Joel Rosario2022José Ortiz (2)
See also Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey
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