Demuro hitting best stride atop the jockey standings

The hottest jockey the first three weeks of the Del Mar autumn meet? Mirco Demuro scored his meet-leading 10th victory Sunday and will enter the final two weeks of the meet on top of the standings with a 10-for-22 record. Antonio Fresu ranks second with eight wins from 44 mounts.

Demuro, a 46-year-old Italian jockey who became a top rider in Japan, relocated to California early this year before the Del Mar summer meet. Although it took a while to gain traction, everything is clicking now for Demuro.

“I couldn’t be more happy,” Demuro said Sunday after winning an allowance with the Richard Mandella-trained Magnificat.

Mandella has been one of Demuro’s biggest supporters. “When you have the support of these kind of people, it makes everything so nice,” Demuro said.

Demuro won just seven races from 80 mounts in summer at Del Mar but his business picked up in fall at Santa Anita, where he won seven races from 39 mounts. This fall at Del Mar the breaks are going his way.

“I’d love to be champion jockey of the world,” Demuro said, laughing. “But it’s a hard thing, everybody is trying to do that.”

For now, Demuro will settle on leading the fall meet.

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