Derby-Queen's Plate double latest triumph for Prat

CYPRESS, Calif. – A day after he became the third jockey to win the Kentucky Derby and Queen’s Plate Stakes in the same year, Flavien Prat rode at Los Alamitos in Southern California. He was focused as much on the future as the recent past.

His first of two mounts on the nine-race program was Schrodinger, a highly promising 2-year-old who won his debut at 2-5. Schrodinger is a candidate for the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 10.

The Del Mar summer meeting begins on July 17. In the interim, Prat will be on the go. He rides at Los Alamitos on Thursday, Prairie Meadows on Friday, and is back at Los Alamitos on Saturday to ride Anonymity in the Grade 2 Great Lady M Stakes for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs.

“I’m going to be busy,” Prat said.

Prat, 26, rode the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine for the first time on Saturday, guiding the California-based One Bad Boy to a front-running win by 3 1/2 lengths over a pesky Avie’s Flatter, who was within a half-length with a furlong remaining. Prat rode One Bad Boy to a second in the Alcatraz Stakes on the synthetic main track at Golden Gate Fields on May 19 in his stakes debut.

“When he got beat, it was a pretty good race and he learned from it,” Prat said of the Alcatraz. “They took the blinkers off and it helped quite a lot. My horse was game.”

Prat joins Bill Hartack in 1964 and Kent Desormeaux in 1998 as the only riders to win the Kentucky Derby and Queen’s Plate in the same year. Hartack accomplished the sweep on the legendary Northern Dancer. Desormeaux won the Kentucky Derby on Real Quiet and the Queen’s Plate that year with Archers Bay.

“It’s cool,” Prat said.

Prat was placed first after the controversial promotion of Country House from second in the Kentucky Derby. There was no dispute surrounding the Queen’s Plate win.

Overall, this has been a strong year for Prat. He was second in the standings to Joel Rosario at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting and was the leading rider at the spring-summer meeting there. He will not be active enough at Los Alamitos to contend for the title at the brief meeting, which ends on July 14.

Last summer at Del Mar, Prat won 37 races and was second in the standings to Drayden Van Dyke, who had 42 wins. Prat won the riding title at the 2017 Del Mar summer meeting and will be a contender for the title this year, along with Van Dyke.

“I’ll try to have a good meet,” Prat said. “I’ll try to find a good 2-year-old.”

Schrodinger, a Justin Phillip colt trained by Simon Callaghan, is an outstanding prospect. There will be more prospects unveiled when Del Mar begins.

Things are active at home, too. Prat and his wife, Manon, have an infant daughter, Elena, who is seven months old and no longer stationary.

“She’s crawling everywhere,” he said. “I guess it’s the beginning.”