On Thursday, January 25th the 47th annual Eclipse Awards were held at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Florida. For those of you unfamiliar, the Eclipse Awards are North American horse racing's highest honor; the equivalent of an Oscar or Grammy in the entertainment industry. This black tie affair draws the best of the best in horse racing from around the country, who come together to celebrate the previous years outstanding accomplishments and rising stars. There are numerous categories honoring horses, jockeys, trainers, owners, breeders, media and others who've had a positive impact on the racing industry.
One highly coveted category is that for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey. This is an award that was won by Equicizer Creator and Builder, Frank Lovato, Jr. in 1980. The three finalists in this category for this year's Eclipse Award were all well deserving and ironically, they are all connected - in some manner - to the Equicizer.
Finalist Katie Clawson, who was gaining momentum before announcing her retirement in September, attended two of Frankie's Jockey Camps in 2011 and 2012. The camps, held from 2009-2013 were held at Frankie's home in Ohio where attendees were given an insiders view at what it takes to become a jockey. The lessons and activities were done primarily on Equicizers in the Equicizer workshop and on a scale size racetrack Frankie built in his backyard. The 2012 camp was also notably attended by Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone.Another of the finalists, Hector Rafael Diaz Jr., attended the jockey school in Puerto Rico, where the Equicizer is used as a regular part of their program, before coming over to the United States.
This year's third finalist and ultimately, the winner of the 2017 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey, Evin A. Roman, called just yesterday to place his order for an Equicizer. His agent - Tony Matos - was also Frankie's agent for a time during his award winning apprentice year.
We are proud of the parallels that existed among this year's finalists and would like to offer a sincere congratulations to Evin, Hector and Katie for their hard work and accomplishments this past year.
To learn more about Frankie's Eclipse Award winning run and the story behind the creation of the Equicizer, check out our previous blog post, "The First “Wooden Horse” - The Birth of the Equicizer (Part 1)."
by Kayla Jarvinen
