The Avelino Gomez Memorial Award is a Canadian thoroughbred horse racing honour given annually to a jockey who is Canadian-born, Canadian-raised, or a regular in the country for more than five years, who has made significant contributions to the sport. The honour is named for the late Cuban-born Canadian and American Hall of Fame jockey Avelino Gomez who died in 1980 of complications from injuries sustained in a racing accident.
Avelino Gomez Memorial Award honourees receive a replica of the life-size statue of Gomez sculpted by Siggy Puchta that stands at Woodbine Racetrack.
In 2004, Francine Villeneuve became the first female recipient of the award.
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The King's Plate is Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race and the oldest continuously run race in North America, having been founded in 1860. It is run at a distance of 1+1⁄4 miles for a maximum of 17 three-year-old thoroughbred horses foaled in Canada.
Ronald Joseph Morel "Ronnie" Turcotte, is a retired Canadian thoroughbred race horse jockey best known as the rider of Secretariat, winner of the U.S. Triple Crown in 1973.
Desmond Sandford "Sandy" Hawley, is a Canadian Hall of Fame jockey.
John Eric "Johnny" Longden was an American Hall of Fame and National Champion jockey and a trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses who was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England. His father emigrated to Canada in 1909, settling in Taber, Alberta.
Stewart "Stewie" Elliott is an American thoroughbred jockey.
Avelino Gomez was a Cuban-born Hall of Fame jockey in American and Canadian thoroughbred horse racing.
Todd Kabel was a Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. A native of McCreary, Manitoba, he began his career as a jockey at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and in 1987 started competing at tracks in Ontario, moving to Toronto permanently in 1991.
Emma-Jayne Wilson is a Sovereign and Eclipse Award-winning jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. She began taking riding lessons at age nine, and after finishing high school in Brampton, she studied equine management at Kemptville College, part of the University of Guelph.
Patrick Husbands is a Barbadian jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. The son of a jockey, he began riding as a young boy, turning professional in his home country where he rode successfully until emigrating to Toronto, Ontario in 1994. In 1990 he became the youngest jockey to win the prestigious Barbados Gold Cup at just 16 years, 9 months on his mount Vardar.
Richard Anthony Dos Ramos is a Canadian jockey in thoroughbred horse racing. He grew up in Malton, a neighbourhood in Mississauga, Ontario, where his family emigrated when he was young. He began his career in horse racing in 1981, winning the Sovereign Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey that year and again in 1982.
The Coronation Futurity Stakes is a Thoroughbred horse race for 2-year-old horses foaled in Canada. It is run annually in mid-November at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at a distance of 1+1⁄8 miles. Along with its turf counterpart, the Cup and Saucer Stakes, the Coronation Futurity is the richest race for two-year-olds foaled in Canada.
Larry Attard is a retired Hall of Fame Champion jockey and current horse trainer in Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing.
Robert Charles Landry is a Canadian Champion jockey in thoroughbred horse racing.
Lloyd Duffy is a Canadian retired Champion jockey in Thoroughbred flat horse racing who uniquely is also a licensed driver of harness racing horses.
Eurico Rosa da Silva is a retired Thoroughbred racing jockey who raced for five years in his native Brazil and another four years in Macau before coming to Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. While based in Canada, he also won races in the United States.
Chris Loseth is a Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. At age six, Loseth's family moved to Fort Nelson, British Columbia then in the year before he graduated high school they resettled in Grand Forks. As a boy he was inspired by the success of the great Alberta jockey, Johnny Longden. After finishing high school, in 1974 Loseth began an apprenticeship at Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, British Columbia that saw him go on to compete in more than 26,000 races. He retired on June 12, 2005 having won more races and stakes events than any other jockey in the one hundred and sixteen year history of Hastings Racecourse.
Jack M. Lauzon is a Canadian retired Thoroughbred horse racing jockey whom The Blood-Horse magazine called "one of the most respected riders in Canada."
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Mickey K. Walls is a retired Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who was a Champion in both the United States and Canada.