Apprentice Diaz making the most of Los Alamitos meet

CYPRESS, Calif. – Thoroughbred meetings at Los Alamitos have become a proving ground for apprentice jockeys in recent years.

In 2014, Drayden Van Dyke won two riding titles at Los Alamitos as an apprentice. In 2017, Evin Roman, riding as an apprentice, swept the titles at the track’s three meetings.

The theme continued last year when apprentice jockeys Assael Espinoza and Heriberto Figueroa shared the title at the summer meeting. Figueroa was later the leading rider at the Los Angeles County Fair meeting and finished in a tie for the title with Tyler Baze at the winter meeting.

After the first two days of the current summer meeting, apprentice J.C. Diaz Jr. led all riders with four wins, two more than Geovanni Franco and Edwin Maldonado.

On Friday’s seven-race program, Diaz has four mounts.

“I like that track,” Diaz said on Wednesday morning. “I’m happy the trainers have given me the opportunity – and the owners.”

Diaz, 18, had three wins on the opening-day program last Saturday and one on Sunday. A native of Puerto Rico, Diaz began riding in Southern California on Feb. 7 and had won 16 races in the United States this year through Sunday.

Diaz can easily add to his win total on Friday.

In the third race, he rides the 4-year-old Whirling in a $16,000 claimer at six furlongs for nonwinners of two. Trained by George Papaprodromou, Whirling was third in a $35,000 claimer for nonwinners of three at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on June 7. Whirling won a $12,500 claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs on Feb. 16, the day she was claimed by Papaprodromou.

Diaz has the mount on Norwegian in the fifth race, run at a mile for fillies and mares who have not won two races. Norwegian is winless in four starts since a victory in a $20,000 claimer for maidens at Golden Gate Fields in December, and faces only four rivals in a poor field on Friday.

In the seventh race, Diaz rides Red Livy, who was third in an allowance race with a $40,000 claiming option at a mile here in June 2018 in her only start on dirt. This race is a starter-optional claimer at 5 1/2 furlongs.

Sturdy One, a 7-year-old mare who has won her last three starts, and Duranga, who has won two of her last three starts, are two leading contenders.

The largest field of the day is the seventh race, a $20,000 claiming race for maidens at six furlongs with 10 entrants. Diaz rides Tengs Wonder, who drew the outside post in her first start in California this year. Tengs Wonder, trained by Vann Belvoir, was second in three maiden-claiming races in Arizona in the spring.

Those are not glamourous mounts, but they give Diaz experience that could prove valuable at the Del Mar summer meeting, which begins July 17.

“I’m doing good at Los Alamitos and maybe I can do good at Del Mar,” he said. “I’m learning more.”