By Leann Noguera, StallioneSearch

NORMAN, OK–JANUARY 15, 2026–In a sport where longevity is rare and sustained excellence even rarer, four jockeys across Canada, Mexico, and the United States rose above their peers in 2025. Each became a standard-bearer in their region through a blend of earnings power, big-race execution, and week-to-week consistency at the highest levels of Quarter Horse racing.

In Canada, Ismael Mosqueira returned from a devastating injury to lead the nation’s jockey colony and pilot AQHA Canadian champion Had To Be Fabulous through a dominant campaign. In Mexico, Nestor Duran authored a season defined by stakes success and historic wins aboard Rey De Manny, the AQHA Mexican Champion Horse and the first Mexican Triple Crown winner. And in the United States, Francisco Calderon and Luis Martinez, who both finished with nearly $4 million in earnings backed by elite mounts including 2025 champions Curls Joyful Wagon, FDD Dreams, and Political Twist.

Below is an in-depth look at the leading jockeys across North America in 2025.

ISMAEL MOSQUEIRA: CANADA’S LEADER IN THE SADDLE

Ismael Mosqueira’s 2025 season was impressive, period. Coming off a devastating injury that sidelined him for months, Canada’s leading Quarter Horse jockey did not just return to riding — he returned to dominance.

By year’s end, Mosqueira stood atop the Canadian standings as the leading rider. From 94 starts in 2025, he delivered 38 wins and a remarkable 40 percent win rate, while his mounts earned $324,775, averaging $3,455 per start.

In July 2024, Mosqueira’s career was abruptly put on hold following a training accident at Fort Erie that resulted in a compound fracture to his right arm, breaking both the radius and ulna. The injury required surgery, including two plates and 12 screws. What was initially projected as an eight-week recovery stretched into a nine-month journey back to full strength.

“After my injury, there were moments when the comeback felt uncertain,” Mosqueira said. “My family never let me lose belief. Their support carried me through the nine-month recovery and gave me the strength to return at the highest level.”

Family support has always been central to his career. Born in Mexico City, Mosqueira was raised at the racetrack, following in his father's footsteps, a jockey who became both mentor and role model.

“I grew up around racing, and my father taught me respect for the horse and the profession,” he said. “Being able to apply everything I’ve learned in Canada and achieve a season like this is something I’m incredibly proud of.”

Mosqueira began riding Quarter Horses in Canada in 2018, and the move proved defining. He found an environment that suited his style — competitive but collaborative — particularly at Ajax Downs.

No horse symbolized Mosqueira’s 2025 campaign more than Had To Be Fabulous, the filly who became both AQHA Canadian Champion and a leading prospect for Canadian Horse of the Year.

Had To Be Fabulous remained undefeated throughout the season, with four stakes victories from eight starts, closing her campaign with a dominant win in the Norman Picov Derby.

“In terms of horses, Had To Be Fabulous was without question the highlight of my year,” Mosqueira said. “Being part of her campaign as a leading AQHA Canadian Champion and Horse of the Year candidate was incredibly special.”

Trained by Bryn Robertson and owned by Carol and Jaime Robertson, the filly’s success was the product of careful placement and steady confidence in the rider.

Mosqueira’s connection with the Robertsons extended beyond one horse. In 2025, he also piloted Had To Be Fabulous’ half-brother Had To Be Ivory — a past Canadian Horse of the Year and two-time AQHA Canadian Champion — to another two stakes wins, the Alex Picov Memorial Championship and Ontario Bred Maturity.

While Had To Be Fabulous and Had To Be Ivory drew the headlines, Mosqueira’s season was built on depth. His 2025 book also included stakes winners Pretty Runaway and Annies Best Card, along with emerging talents such as Jezabella.

“Another meaningful milestone for me in 2025 was achieving my first 100 Quarter Horse wins in Canada,” he said. “Reaching that aboard Jezabella made it even more special, because it represented years of hard work finally coming together.”

Across his Quarter Horse career, Mosqueira has logged 458 lifetime starts, producing 114 wins, 75 seconds, 67 thirds, and more than $1.14 million in earnings. His resume also includes more than $6.6 million earned in Thoroughbred competition.

Ismael Mosqueira finished 2025 as the clear leader among Canadian Quarter Horse jockeys, topping a competitive standings list that included accomplished riders such as Brian Bell, J.B. Botello, Cristian Benitez, Ramiro Sanchez Castillo, and Cassandra Jeschke.

 

NESTOR DURAN: MEXICO’S LEADING RIDER AND A MAJOR FACTOR IN THE U.S.

In a sport where results are everything, Nestor Duran is stacking them up fast. The Monclova, Coahuila native put together a standout 2025 season fueled by stakes wins at the Hipodromo de las Americas and major tracks across the United States.

In 2025, Duran lit the board in 28 of 34 starts at the Mexico City track. He has 19 wins, eight seconds, and one third, with a 56% win percentage and 82% placing on the board.

While Duran led the ranks in Mexico, he also ranked 24th in total U.S. earnings in 2025, compiling $1,539,204 from 319 starts. He posted 72 wins, 42 seconds, and 39 thirds, producing a 23 percent win rate and finishing in the top three 48 percent of the time. His mounts averaged $4,825 per start.

Duran’s story did not start with formal training or polished opportunities. It began with a horse, his brothers, and figuring it out as they went.

“I first got started riding when my brothers bought a horse and taught me how to ride him,” Duran said. “We actually broke the horse together — without really knowing what we were doing. We even took him to match races and won. I was wearing a bicycle helmet at the time.”

Like many riders who build careers from the ground up, his next step came through the backside.

“Later, a family friend helped me get connected, and I began working as a groom for the Huitron family,” he said. “That opportunity eventually led to me being given the chance to start galloping, which is where everything really began to take shape.”

Now a professional jockey for nine years, Duran points to one rider as the early example he looked up to.

“JR Ramirez,” he said.

In 2025, Duran won five stakes races in Mexico, led by three stakes victories aboard Rey De Manny, the AQHA Mexican Champion Horse and Mexico’s first Quarter Horse Triple Crown winner. Duran also added stakes wins on El Ilusionista SR and Corona Crystal.

Rey De Manny completed a clean sweep of Mexico’s Triple Crown series, winning the Mexico Futurity, the Garanones Futurity, and sealing it with a win in the Subasta Selecta Futurity (RG2) at the Hipodromo de las Americas.

After winning the final leg, Duran kept it grounded and made sure the credit went where it belonged.

“I’m thankful for all the connections who helped me get to this point — without them, I wouldn’t be here, especially the grooms who are with the horses every day,” he said. “Even though the purses aren’t the same as in the United States, winning in Mexico means so much to me because it’s where I was born.”

Duran’s final out of the season in Mexico City delivered another highlight, closing the meet with a stakes victory aboard El Ilusionista SR.

“I never imagined winning four of the five futurities and the Triple Crown in one season,” said an emotional Duran. “We made history, and I’m grateful for every horse and every person who helped me get here.”

In Mexico City, Durán’s success has come against a deep jockey colony at the Hipódromo de las Américas. Other top riders on the grounds include Alejandro Gomez with 156 starts and a 22.43% win rate, Heriberto Camacho with 183 starts and a 19.12% win rate, Huberclein Gomez with 208 starts and a 19.23% win rate, and Arturo Vega Moreno with 209 starts and a 16.74% win rate—further underscoring just how strong Durán’s season has been at the top of the standings at 56%.

While he was producing in Mexico, Duran’s U.S. resume expanded in a major way. His 2025 stateside totals included 13 stakes wins, highlighted by three graded victories: the $700,000 Sam Houston Futurity (G2) aboard Britts Special Candy, the B.F. Phillips, Jr. Stakes (G2) aboard Ima Chili, and the Retama Championship Challenge Stakes (G3) aboard As Moonflash. He was also named the 2025 Jockey of the Meet at Retama Park in Selma, Texas.

From the U.S. to Mexico, Duran made a full-season statement in 2025, and he did it with momentum that is hard to ignore.

 

FRANCISCO CALDERON AND LUIS MARTINEZ: A TIGHT MARGIN AT THE TOP

In 2025, the race for leading jockey by money earned came down to two men who separated themselves from an already elite national colony. Francisco Calderon and Luis Martinez were the only Quarter Horse riders in North America whose mounts earned more than $3 million, and both finished the year just dollars away from the coveted $4 million mark.

Calderon ended the season on top in total earnings with $3,999,450, narrowly holding off Martinez, who finished close behind at $3,921,044. When the final numbers were tallied, Calderon secured the nation’s top earnings honor, while Martinez won the AQHA Champion Jockey title.

Calderon earned his title through volume and relentless consistency. He made 497 starts, which was 91 more mounts than Martinez, and that workload translated into 90 victories, an 18 percent win rate, and top-three finishes on 46 percent of his rides.

Martinez, by contrast, delivered a higher average return per start. With 406 starts, he posted 57 wins, and his mounts averaged $9,658 per start, edging Calderon’s $8,047. Martinez also maintained a strong strike rate with 42 percent of his rides finishing in the top three, just behind Calderon’s 46 percent.

Both jockeys stayed remarkably close in board finishes, but Calderon’s edge in winning proved decisive in the earnings leader board. Calderon collected 65 seconds and 72 thirds, compared to Martinez with 63 seconds and 52 thirds.

FRANCISCO CALDERON: LEADING JOCKEY BY EARNINGS IN THE U.S.

Calderon raced across the country aboard some of the nation’s finest. Still, during the 2025 Remington Park season, Calderon reached multiple career milestones, including his 1,000th career win, surpassing 100 career stakes victories, and finishing the meet with three graded stakes wins.

On closing night in Oklahoma City, Calderon delivered a sequence that defined his season, scoring with House Of Lords in the Heritage Place Oaks (G2) and Curls Joyful Wagon in the Junos Request Stakes (G1), before dead-heating for the win in the $1.16 million Heritage Place Futurity (G1) aboard Apollirevenge.

“It was such a blessed night for us to finish off so strong in what has been a bit of a slow meet for me,” said Calderon. “My agent and I went to work finding some live horses, and we are blessed to have those efforts pay off for us with wins. To close off the meet with the win in the Heritage Place Futurity (G1) after finishing second in the race so many times is truly an amazing experience.”

One of the year’s most notable horses tied to Calderon’s season was Curls Joyful Wagon, the AQHA champion aged mare. The 5-year-old mare won both the Junos Request Stakes (G1) and the Decketta Stakes (G2), was second in the Las Damas Handicap (G2), and third in the Charger Bar Handicap (G1). Calderon was one of three jockeys to ride her during the season, with Edwin Escobedo and Ali Rivera also credited with her success.

Calderon’s 2025 season was not a one-off peak. It fit into the larger run that has defined him as one of the sport’s leading riders in recent years. His career accomplishments surged in 2023, when he set a new single-season earnings record for a Quarter Horse jockey, totaling $7,211,055, a year that also brought him his second AQHA Champion Jockey Award. Two seasons removed from that record-setting campaign, Calderon proved again in 2025 that his ceiling is elite, and his floor is still higher than most.

LUIS MARTINEZ: 2025 AQHA CHAMPION JOCKEY

Martinez’s season was anchored by some of the year’s most decorated horses. He was aboard FDD Dreams, the 2025 World Champion, overall champion 3-year-old, and champion 3-year-old gelding, whose campaign included victories in the Ruidoso Derby (G1), All American Derby (G1), and Champion of Champions (G1). FDD Dreams is the first All American Derby-Champion of Champions winner in more than 35 years.

Martinez also guided Political Twist, the season’s champion overall 2-year-old and 2-year-old gelding, who won the West Texas Futurity (G2) and Ruidoso Futurity (G1), was second in the All American Futurity (G1), and ended the season as a finalist in the Los Alamitos 2 Million Futurity (G1).

After winning the Ruidoso Futurity aboard Political Twist, Martinez summed up the moment in the winner’s circle.

“It’s hard to express my feelings of joy right now,” Martinez said through a translator. “The horse reacted to everything with ease — nothing seems to bother his professional attitude and going about his business.”

 

TOP TEN LEADING JOCKEYS BY MONEY EARNED IN 2025

Behind the Calderon-Martinez duel, the rest of the top ten reflected a deep, competitive national jockey bench. Juan Pulido ranked third with mounts earning $2,997,277, followed closely by Christian Ramos at $2,928,309. Noe Garcia, Jr., rounded out the top five with $2,760,968, while Christian Cardenas ($2,527,810) and Jacob Enriquez ($2,504,797) both cleared the $2.5 million mark.

The final three spots belonged to Jorge Javier Garcia ($2,439,211), Ricky Ramirez ($2,406,814), and Bryan Candanosa ($2,276,542), underscoring that it took well over $2.2 million in earnings to crack the national top ten, and illustrating just how high the bar was in 2025.

In 2025, Ismael Mosqueira, Nestor Duran, Francisco Calderon, and Luis Martinez separated themselves from an elite North American jockey colony through earnings, consistency, and big-race execution.

Mosqueira led Canada in wins and earnings while guiding AQHA Canadian champion Had To Be Fabulous through a dominant season, while Duran delivered historic stakes success in Mexico and continued producing at a high level in the United States.

In the U.S., Calderon narrowly topped the earnings standings in a tight season-long battle with Martinez, who matched him stride for stride while earning the AQHA Champion Jockey title behind some of the year’s most decorated horses.

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