Russell Baze Wins 12th Isaac Murphy Award; Ricky Frazier Finishes Second

National and Washington Racing Hall of Fame rider Russell Baze won his unprecedented 12th (in the 13 years the award has been given) Isaac Murphy Award for finishing 2007 with the highest win percentage among all North American jockeys. Given by the National Turf Writers Association, the award honors 19th century jockey Isaac Murphy who won with 44 percent of his mounts. To be eligible, a jockey must have ridden a minimum 500 races.

Last year, Baze – who is North America’s all-time leading rider in wins – won 399 races from 1,211 mounts (32.9 percent). Ricky Frazier, who was Emerald Downs record-breaking rider in 2007 with 157 wins and who earned his own milestone 3,000th victory last November, finished second with a 26 win percentage. Coming in third was Mario Gutierrez with 25 percent victories. Ramon Dominguez, the only other rider to have won the award (in 2004 and after Baze had been injured), finished seventh in 2007 with 23.8 percent winners.