Smith, Baze Share Jockey of the Week After Santa Anita Milestones
Tyler Baze hit his 3,000th U.S. win the same week Mike Smith, at 59, became the oldest Santa Anita Derby winner in history.
A racing panel couldn't split them, and the numbers explain why. Mike Smith and Tyler Baze shared Jockey of the Week honors for March 30–April 5, 2026, their career arcs as different as the wins that earned them the recognition, yet both arriving at a milestone moment in the same week at Santa Anita Park.
Smith's share came courtesy of So Happy, who stalked the pace through the 1 1/8 miles of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby before surging past Potente in the stretch to win by 2 3/4 lengths in 1:49.01. The victory made Smith, at 59, the oldest jockey in the race's history to claim it. His read of the trip was characteristically spare: "He kept on going today." Trainer Mark Glatt now steers So Happy toward a Kentucky Derby trail reshaped by that result, with bettors and stables reassessing a horse whose profile gained considerable weight from the race shape, pace figures, and margin of the win.
Baze's milestone arrived two days later, on April 6, aboard Gypsy Tears in Santa Anita's ninth race, a six-furlong starter allowance. The horse closed from seventh to take the wire and paid $36.20, delivering Baze his 3,000th Thoroughbred victory in the United States. That number doesn't accumulate without years of grinding through everyday racecards where the spotlight rarely follows. Baze credited his team and grooms as central to the achievement, a straightforward acknowledgment that a journeyman career at that volume runs on more than one rider's talent.
The dual recognition reflects how the weekly vote gets weighed: stakes-race impact on one side, career accumulation on the other. Smith's Grade 1 triumph carries immediate Triple Crown relevance, giving So Happy a credentialed performance worth dissecting as the Kentucky Derby field takes shape. Baze's win signals something different but equally actionable for horsemen: a rider in sharp enough form to close from seventh on a $36 shot is worth the call when a trainer has the right horse.
On upcoming Santa Anita cards, both riders carry different kinds of currency. Smith's pedigree means the market will price him efficiently, but his work on So Happy confirmed the instincts remain at the highest level deep into a Hall of Fame career. Baze, with momentum and a sharpened profile among trainers and owners who track these milestones closely, is precisely the kind of live, under-the-radar option that can shift a ticket from ordinary to profitable.
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