Another meet title not Prat's primary goal this summer

In the 10 race meetings at Del Mar from 2015 to 2019, Flavien Prat won or tied for first place at the summer meeting three times and won the riding title at the autumn meeting once. He finished second at four meetings.

Prat, 27, is expected to have an equally strong performance at this summer’s Del Mar meet, although the number of days he will be riding at other venues might affect where he ends up in the standings.

Sunday, Prat is booked to ride eight of the 10 races in his second appearance of the meeting. He was booked to ride Friday’s opening day and scheduled to ride at Keeneland on Saturday.

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Later this summer, Prat is likely to ride at Churchill Downs when the track runs the postponed Kentucky Oaks on Sept. 4 and the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5. Prat won the 2019 Kentucky Derby on Country House, who was promoted from second to first after Maximum Security was disqualified from first for causing interference.

This year, Prat said the riding title at Del Mar may be secondary to winning big stakes.

“This is not the main goal, but it is one of them,” Prat said of the riding title. “We’re going to try. I’m going to go out of town maybe a few weekends.

“Hopefully, we can have a good meeting. The main goal is to find a good 2-year-old.”

Oddly, jockeys are also seeking good 3-year-olds at this time of year for the rescheduled Kentucky Derby. Prat rides the unbeaten Cezanne, who has yet to run in a stakes but could do so in the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 1. The race is part of the Kentucky Derby qualifying series.

“I think right now it is wide open,” Prat said of the Kentucky Derby. “The Derby will be different anyway.”

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In the last five years, a rider has needed 35 to 42 wins to secure the riding title at a Del Mar summer meeting. This year, the total could be slightly less, with 28 days of racing compared to 36 in 2019.

Prat was the leading rider at the six-month Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, which ended on June 21, with 90 wins, 29 more than runner-up Abel Cedillo.

At Del Mar, Prat will contend for the riding title against Drayden Van Dyke, the leading rider at the 2018 summer meeting and runner-up last year, as well as Cedillo and perhaps Juan Hernandez, who recently relocated from Northern California.