Court to be honored with 2015 Mike Venezia Memorial Award

Kentucky-based jockey Jon Court was announced as the 2015 recipient of the

Mike Venezia Memorial Award, which will be presented on Memorial Day at Belmont

Park.

Established in 1989, the Mike Venezia Memorial Award is awarded to jockeys

who exemplify extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship. It is named in honor

of Mike Venezia, who died as a result of injuries he suffered in a spill in 1988

at Belmont Park. Previous winners include Bill Shoemaker, Angel Cordero Jr.,

Jerry Bailey, Mike Smith, Gary Stevens, Richard Migliore and Ramon Dominguez.

Court, 54, received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 2007. At the

age of 50, he captured the Arkansas Derby (G1) aboard Archarcharch for the

second straight year after piloting Line of David to victory in 2010. He has

twice finished among the top 25 jockeys in terms of earnings, first in 2005 and

again in 2006.