Evin Roman rides 1,000th winner at Horseshoe Indianapolis

Evin Roman turned a routine maiden race into a career marker when he rode Filly Named Bruzz to a runaway victory in the fifth race at Horseshoe Indianapolis, becoming a 1,000-win jockey in North American Thoroughbred racing.

The milestone came Wednesday, April 29, in a six-furlong maiden event that Filly Named Bruzz controlled from the start and won by 10 and one-half lengths. For Roman, it was the kind of clean, decisive mount that can carry a rider into a landmark without any drama in the final strides. It was also his first career start aboard the homebred Indiana-sired daughter of Shagaf, owned by Doris Book, Andrew Harris and Frank Brown and trained by Ethan West.

The numbers behind the moment show how much ground Roman had already covered before he got there. Equibase listed him with 999 career wins, 5,826 starts, 897 seconds, 821 thirds and $27,374,275 in earnings entering the day. His 2026 line stood at 47 starts, 2 wins, 9 seconds and 7 thirds for $207,828 as of April 23, leaving him one win shy of the threshold before he added No. 1,000 at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Roman’s path to that number has moved through several circuits and phases. He began riding in Puerto Rico, where he won two races before relocating to the United States in 2017. His first U.S. success came in California, where he tied Flavian Prat for the leading jockey title at Santa Anita at age 19 and later earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey. He moved to Indiana in 2024 and had already finished among the top 10 in the Horseshoe Indianapolis standings in both of his seasons there before this breakthrough.

After the race, Roman said he had been working Filly Named Bruzz in the mornings and felt she had a strong chance. The win had an added personal layer because his family was in attendance for the celebration. Track officials Eric Halstrom, Rachel McLaughlin and Tim DeWitt joined the winner’s-circle presentation, giving the moment the full recognition of a milestone that matters in a rider’s career arc, not just on a single card.

Horseshoe Indianapolis is in its 24th season of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing, scheduled to run through Friday, November 13, 2026. Roman’s 1,000th winner fit that setting perfectly: a regional track, a first-out filly, and a veteran jockey reaching a number that speaks to longevity, adaptation and the grind of staying relevant season after season.