Regardless of solely turning 17 final March, the shy, soft-spoken boy from Panama tipped the scales at 107 kilos, however from the start he carried the load of being labeled worthy of the Eclipse Award.
When Yedsit Hazlewood’s sister Daybellis despatched Jose Corrales a video of her brother using a horse a few yr in the past, the man Panamanian former jockey and coach had nothing however hope. Mr. Corrales, who has coached different Eclipse Award-winning apprentices, made the far-fetched prediction for others that Hazlewood would win essentially the most coveted award for budding jockeys.
After Hazlewood gained the primary race he rode on the Lafitte Pinkay Junior Technical Jockey Coaching Academy, Corrales shared a video with fellow Pinkay jockey and Corridor of Fame jockey Angel Cordero. Each have been equally enthusiastic about Ryder’s skills and future.
Plans have been set in movement to carry Hazlewood to the USA after graduating from faculty. Mr. Corrales will grow to be his authorized guardian. He ended up rooming with Maryland Jockey Membership paddock decide Mario Virgi. He rode each race like he was a $5,000 claimant. The prediction that he might win the Eclipse Award as an impressive apprentice was all the time current for Hazlewood, though he had no concept what it meant to comply with within the footsteps of riders like Chris McCarron and Kent Desormeaux. He’ll share the jockey room with previous winners Alberto Delgado, who gained the Eclipse in 1982, and Victor Carrasco, the 2013 winner.
2 days after turning 17th Hazlewood rode for the primary time in a race in America on his birthday, but it surely took 13 extra makes an attempt for Addie’s Laddie TNT to take his first win on April 4 at Laurel Park. From there, Hazlewood rapidly improved via wins and Corrales’ steerage. After 22 wins, Hazlewood was sidelined for greater than two months after a automotive accident threatened his life and desires. His agent, John DiNatale, recollects it as a darkish time for the younger baby. “I believe this was a wake-up name for him. He realized what he might lose and what he virtually misplaced,” DiNatale mentioned.
As he watched his disciple get well from a near-fatal accident, Corrales seemed inside at his personal religion. “I consider in God a lot that I believe possibly that is God displaying us and seeing if he can come again,” Corrales mentioned. “It is about coming again in the identical situation he was in on the time of the accident. He ought to have died, he ought to have died. And to return again and are available again in such a brief time period with so many wins and a lot success is a miracle.”
Regardless of being comparatively fluent in horse using, Hazlewood nonetheless struggles with the occasional isolation of not having the ability to communicate English in addition to he would love. He is studying, however finally he simply smiles and says “Digame.”
Hazlewood started to belief DiNatale to do his work, counting on the killer intuition that resides within the thoroughbred’s again. It requires no translation.
He returned to full using in time for the 2025 Maryland Honest Meet in Timonium, the place he gained 13 races for a profitable share of 39% and gained his first using title. Hazlewood was fulfilling Whisperer Corrales’ prophecy, however with misplaced using time and using restrictions in some jurisdictions as a result of he was not but 18 years previous, his third and fourth win days nonetheless seemed like an uphill battle.
Unable to double up and run someplace on the mid-Atlantic race circuit throughout the day and decide up extra mounts throughout state traces for the Charlestown race at evening, Hazlewood and DiNatale spent many miles driving from Colonial Downs in Virginia to New York’s Aqueduct to seek out mounts. The exhausting work of waking up early to train horses and constructing relationships with trainers, going to the coaching room hooked up to the jockey’s room, using eight to 10 horses a day, and doing the identical factor day in and day trip will be lonely for any jockey, not to mention a 17-year-old.
“My household helps me 100%. I am with them more often than not,” Hazlewood mentioned. A few of his household is in the USA, however they stay practically two hours away. “However that is my profession, that is what I’ve dreamed of, and if I wish to achieve success in life. I’ve to do issues myself.”
Hazlewood has needed to be a jockey since he was 10 years previous. My brother was a jockey and my uncle was a coach. When given the selection of a jockey to emulate, Hazlewood didn’t select a celeb or legendary jockey. “My favourite jockey is my brother Angel Rodriguez. I all the time attempt to journey like him and all the time enhance,” Hazlewood mentioned. “We’ve got the identical saddle, every thing is similar. I all the time needed to journey like him.”
To an outsider’s perspective, Hazlewood has the drive and expertise to grow to be a fantastic jockey, but it surely’s a journey no teenager can full alone. Corrales remains to be a full-time coach and a household man. DiNatale sees Hazlewood within the morning and helps him with morning apply rides, race rides, journey, licensing, and so forth., however even then there’s solely a lot he can do. Though a lot of Hazelwood’s household has moved close by and is doing their finest to help him, there are nonetheless elements of him that he has to do on his personal. That is when Hazlewood turns to a different household: the opposite jockeys round him.
“The reality is that almost all of them, Jose Torrerealba, Michel Sanchez, have all the time supported me. Ángel Cruz, Julio Hernández, Victor Carrasco, they gave me recommendation,” Hazlewood mentioned, reflecting on the brotherhood between the colonies of jockeys he traveled forwards and backwards. “They all the time supported me and advised me the reality.”
When Hazlewood places on his using helmet, a swap flips. In lots of different methods, he’s nonetheless a toddler. He needs to compete in FIFA Soccer 2026, however he would not really feel the load of the “adulting” issues that scare him essentially the most, like paying the payments and shopping for a home. He needs to snicker, discover a lady, and take heed to Mike Towers’ “Lo Logre.” However when the using helmet is activated, he clears the mechanism and does all of the work.
Hazlewood is specializing in using each race, simply as Corrales taught him. As promised, the victory got here and he gained sufficient races to be acknowledged and finally get to journey with the most effective jockeys on the planet. On his first journey to Suidobashi, he gained a race in opposition to high riders Jose Lezcano and Jaime Rodriguez.
The dichotomy of not using to win, however giving the most effective journey doable to win and aiming for the Eclipse Prize on the similar time, requires a substantial amount of religion.
“Since I have been right here, Jose Corrales has all the time advised me that with God’s assist, we’ll get there when it counts,” Hazlewood mentioned. “My purpose was all the time to win the Eclipse and get to an enormous place like Saratoga.”
Hazlewood was doing effectively as an apprentice rider, however Canada’s Pietro Moran had a transparent lead in wins and prize cash. On the way in which again from New York, his automotive overturned and he was injured for 2 months, which seemed to be the distinction in his likelihood to win the Eclipse Award.
After which October got here. It began in Laurel Park on Million Day in Maryland. Hazlewood gained 5 stakes or handicap races that day and found a brand new stage of using. Beginning on October thirty first, the little child from Panama set information that almost all skilled athletes solely dream of. He rode for 23 consecutive days at Laurel and gained not less than one race. Hazlewood carried that momentum into December.
On Dec. 1, Pietro Moran had a 35-win lead over Hazlewood. He was capable of run 23 days earlier than New 12 months’s Eve, though unhealthy climate compelled the closure of the Mid-Atlantic circuit. He rode for Laurel, Parkes Racing and Aqueduct and gained on 18 of the times he rode. Hazlewood had 35 wins in December and got here inside three wins of Moran with 270 fewer mounts. Primarily based on efficiency alone, Hazlewood, Corrales and DiNatale all thought Hazlewood had achieved sufficient. Throughout the jockey room, everybody had the identical mantra: “If Yedshit would not win, it is a crime.” There have been no surprises when the finalists for the Excellent Apprenticeship have been introduced. Chris Elliott, son of an expert jockey, Moran and Hazlewood have been chosen. Now, please wait.
Hazlewood left for Florida early together with his household and fellow Panamanian jockey Angel Morales. He received to be a child for a short while and visited Disney World. Then, as an grownup, I received to spend an evening on the luxurious and upscale The Breakers in Palm Seaside for the Eclipse Awards program. Carrying a brown tuxedo, a gold watch, and a free bow tie that belied his 17-year-old self, Hazlewood labored the room and fortunately responded to a lot of potential employers, hopeful and hopeful that he could be handed the {hardware} inside minutes.
Hazlewood didn’t have to attend lengthy for the excellent apprentice class to reach. When the resumes of Elliott, Moran and Hazlewood have been projected on a display within the room, it was proven that Hazlewood had solely gained 105 video games on the yr. Apparently, annual totals have been despatched out in early December, and voters had to determine their year-end totals themselves. The significance of this was not but totally understood, however DiNatale and Corrales actually noticed the writing on the wall: 35 wins in December meant nothing, two months misplaced in a violent automotive accident meant every thing, and Pietro Moran would win the Eclipse Award.
Corrales was sitting subsequent to Hazlewood at desk 31 behind the room. As Moran accepted his award, Corrales defined what occurred. They gathered themselves and headed throughout the room to Moran’s desk, the place Hazlewood congratulated him on his award. Hazlewood returned to the desk and the seating association was improvised. He sat subsequent to his mom, Itzelka, and posed for photographs as he watched others within the trade, one other household he aspires to be part of, take pleasure in success.
Hazlewood did not let the frustration of not profitable get the higher of them. He returned to work instantly. The jockey ranks third within the nation in wins via March 5. He turns 18 in a number of weeks, however because of his accident in 2025, Hazlewood jockey could have till mid-June to return as a 2026 Distinguished Apprentice candidate.
