Apprentice Jessica Pyfer wins four Sunday races
ARCADIA, Calif. – Apprentice jockey Jessica Pyfer won a career-best four races from eight mounts on Sunday’s nine-race program to move into sixth in the standings at Santa Anita’s winter-spring meeting.
Pyfer won three races on a program at Los Alamitos in December, shortly after she began riding last September.
Sunday, Pyfer won the second race with Rakassah ($6.20), third with Joe Don Looney ($4.40), seventh with Lofty ($7.40), and ninth with Sweet Devil ($10).
“It’s insane,” Pyfer said. “When I won three, I thought, ‘Wow, I did it again.’ ”
Lofty and Sweet Devil are trained by Michael McCarthy, who won Saturday’s Preakness Stakes with Rombauer.
Sweet Devil closed from seventh in a field of 12 to win a $50,000 claimer for maidens on turf by a neck over 34-1 Shout It Out. There were three horses within a half-length at the finish, with Sweet Devil closing with a wide rally.
“I thought I had it,” Pyfer said.
Sunday was a big day for women apprentice riders. Emily Ellingwood won the eighth race on favored Tobacco Road ($4.60) for her ninth win of the winter-spring meeting.
Pyfer has won 30 races at the meeting, which began Dec. 26. Flavien Prat leads the standings with 102 wins.
Pyfer, 23, has won 49 races in her brief career and will retain her apprentice status until November. This summer, she will ride the prestigious Del Mar summer meeting for the first time. She did ride at the track’s autumn meeting last year.
Pyfer said she has a basic strategy for the next six months.
“Keep winning,” she said.
When racing resumes Friday, Pyfer has four mounts on an eight-race program.