Espinoza moving South for the summer
Assael Espinoza, the leading rider at Golden Gate Fields earlier this year, is returning to Southern California.
Espinoza, 23, will be based at Santa Anita working horses and riding occasional races at Los Alamitos in coming weeks before moving to Del Mar for the start of the track’s summer meeting on July 21. Ezpinoza is booked on two mounts on Friday’s opening day of the three-week Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Los Alamitos.
“I feel I want to take the chance to make it down there,” Espinoza said. “I want to get there and work some horses and pick up some business for Del Mar.”
Espinoza finished the Golden Gate Fields meeting on June 11 with 93 wins, 13 more than runner-up Evin Roman. Racing is currently being held at county fairs in Northern California. Racing does not resume at Golden Gate Fields in until late August.
“I’m coming off a meet with a lot of momentum,” he said. “I want to give it a try again.”
Espinoza, who has won 480 races, rode in Southern California at the start of his career in 2018 and moved to Northern California in early 2021. He won his first riding at Golden Gate Fields during a six-week meeting there from late August to early October last year.
Espinoza is the latest rider from Northern California to relocate to Southern California in recent years, preceded by Abel Cedillo, Kyle Frey, Ricky Gonzalez, and Juan Hernandez.
In the last year, Hernandez has emerged as the leading rider in Southern California. He finished first in the standings at Santa Anita, which ended its spring meeting on Sunday.
Not all of the northern-based riders who have tried Southern California have stayed. Last summer, Armando Ayuso won 4 races from 124 mounts at the Del Mar summer meeting before moving back to Northern California where he ranks among the leading riders.
Espinoza, the nephew of Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza, won 22 races at Del Mar in the summer of 2018, but struggled in the two years that followed, winning one race at at that track.
Espinoza knows the level of competition for mounts is the toughest of the year in Southern California at Del Mar.
“That makes it competitive,” he said. “You want to beat the riders down there.”
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