HALLANDALE BEACH - Two-time defending leading rider Irad Ortiz Jr., fellow Eclipse Award winner Tyler Gaffalione and British champion David Egan will make their first appearances of the 2025-2026 Championship Meet when the country’s premier winter stand resumes with a nine-race program today.

 First race post time is 12:20 p.m.

     Ortiz, fresh off topping the Churchill Downs fall meet standings, is named in four races today and seven on Friday to begin the quest for his record-extending seventh Championship Meet title, having broken the mark set by Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, who won five in a row from 2011-2012 to 2015-2016. Ortiz also surpassed Castellano’s single-season standard with 140 wins in 2020-2021.

    A 33-year-old native of Puerto Rico and five-time Eclipse Award winner (2018-20, 2022-23), Ortiz ranked first with 109 wins and $6.6 million in purse earnings last winter at Gulfstream with 12 stakes wins led by White Abarrio in the Ghostzapper (G3) and $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) and Mindframe in the Gulfstream Park Mile (G2).

    Gaffalione, born and raised in Davie, Fla., is named in three races today and Friday and six on Saturday including Summer Cause for trainer Miguel Clement in the $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Handicap scheduled for two miles on the grass.

    Last winter the 31-year-old Gaffalione, the champion apprentice of 2015, was second at the Championship Meet with 74 wins and third with nearly $4.2 million in purse earnings whose stakes wins were highlighted by Spirit of St Louis in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1).

    Based in England, where he was the champion apprentice of 2017, Egan was born in Kildare, Ireland and returns for the third straight winter. He is named in five races today, four races Friday and five on Saturday including stakes-placed I Know I Know in the Jerkens for 3-year-olds and up.

    Egan, 26, won 18 races and $707,450 in purses from 149 mounts at the 2024-2025 Championship Meet before returning for the British season. The winner of several major international Group 1 races including the Saudi Cup, Dubai Sheema Classic, Irish St. Leger and the St. Leger in England, he is a contract rider for Kia Joorabchian’s AMO Racing through 2028.

    Soon to arrive at Gulfstream are Hall of Famer John Velazquez, North America’s all-time leader with more than $513 million in purses earnings, and Corey Lanerie, a lifetime winner of 5,150 races.

    Jockey Rajiv Maragh sits one win shy of 2,000 for his career. He is named in two races today, five on Friday and six on Saturday.

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