Since arriving at Thistledown as a 22-year-old in 2012, Walter De La Cruz has been the dominant rider at the suburban Cleveland track. A graduate of the Jockey School of Peru, which produced such stars as Rafael Bejarano and Edgar Prado, De La Cruz has topped the Thistledown standings in four of the last five seasons, including a career-best 130 wins in 2014. When live racing returns to Thistledown on Monday for the start of a 100-day meet, De La Cruz will face some keen competition in the race for leading rider. Jaime Rodriguez, 26, who finished atop the Finger Lakes standings for three straight seasons, including 203 victories in 2015, chose to remain in Ohio this spring rather than return to western New York. Rodriguez, who finished third in the recently concluded winter-spring meet at Mahoning Valley Race Course with 43 wins, is doing double duty. Rodriguez has six mounts on the opening-day, eight-race card at Thistledown and is scheduled to ride six more horses Monday night at Mountaineer in West Virginia, where he has gone 9 for 33 since the meet began April 1. Rodriguez is named on the 5-year-old Tepu War in the featured seventh race, a first-level allowance at 5 1/2 furlongs that drew a full field of 12, plus two also-eligibles. Tepu War owns a 6-for-17 record at Thistledown, including his most recent victory last September, when he was ridden by De La Cruz. The likely favorite in the feature is Right On Ready, a 5-year-old who has recorded Beyer Speed Figures of 83, 84, and 73 in three of four starts since coming to Ohio from Florida. He is trained by Jeff Radosevich, Thistledown’s leading conditioner in three of the past five seasons, including last year, when his 88 victories were 39 ahead of Nabu Morales, who finished ahead of Radosevich in 2013 and 2015 at Thistledown. Monday’s program attracted 82 horses and features five races with fields of 10 or more runners. David Ellsworth, the track’s director of racing, estimated that 820 horses are already on the grounds, about 15 percent more than last year at this time. Ellsworth expects that number to hit 1,000 soon when more stock arrives from Tampa Bay Downs. Among the new faces among trainers this season is Jay Bernardini, who finished tied for second at Mahoning Valley's winter-spring meet with 20 winners. Gary Johnson, who won nearly 1,300 races during a 30-year career before leaving the game in 2008 to focus on handicapping tournaments, is bringing in 25 horses. Johnson, who enjoyed great success as a tournament player the past 10 years, won 100 or more races between 1997 and 2002, including 205 victories in 2001 - 113 of them at Thistledown, where he was leading trainer for seven straight years. Johnson resumed training this year and went 0 for 4 since mid-March at Tampa Bay Downs. Butch Marshall, who has gone 58 for 212 at Thistledown the past three years (27 percent) has been granted 25 stalls. Overnight purses have been increased about 7.5 percent since last year, with the daily average at $140,000, about $10,000 more than last spring. Thistledown’s commitment to the Ohio Derby, raising the purse to $500,000 two years ago and restoring the distance to 1 1/8 miles last season, paid off when the race regained Grade 3 status for its 83rd running June 24. The Ohio Derby had long been a Grade 2 race until 2010, then fell to a Grade 3 event and lost its graded status in 2014. The other major stakes for open company will be the second running of the $200,000 Lady Jacqueline for fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles on Aug. 19. The other 15 stakes are restricted to Ohio-breds.