Geroux staying on the move

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The rising jockey Florent Geroux has put together an excellent summer, and only a portion of it has come at his home base, Arlington. Geroux is the fifth-leading rider at the ongoing meet, his 44 wins through the Sept. 13 card 30 fewer than leading jockey Jose Valdivia Jr. But Geroux, thanks to this Arlington Million win on The Pizza Man, tops the jockey earnings list at the meet with $1.4 million, and he’s spent as many weekends during the long Arlington season riding out of town as he has at home.

Right now, Geroux is the leading rider at the short Kentucky Downs meet, where he won five races on one eight-race card and has gone 7 for 16 through Monday’s action at the all-turf, European-style course. Last Saturday, he was at Woodbine, where he won the Grade 2 Natalma for trainer Mark Casse on Catch a Glimpse, and this Saturday he rides likely favorite I’m a Chatterbox in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx Racing.

In fact, Geroux said he’s unlikely to ride at Arlington again this season after taking mounts Thursday.

“I’ll ride at Churchill for a week or two, then be at Keeneland through the Breeders’ Cup and probably right to Fair Grounds after that,” said Geroux, 29, whose agent is Doug Bredar.

Geroux has young children, and continuity for his family is one major reason he decided to ride again this summer at Arlington, where purses have fallen to historically low levels. Even so, he has managed to accumulate $5.7 million in purse earnings this year, 18th best among North American riders, and has won seven graded stakes, tied for the 13th-best total in North America.

If Arlington’s trajectory and Geroux’s remain the same through next spring, it’s hard not to see the native of France finding a different summer base in 2016.

◗ Trainer Chris Block said he hasn’t even thought about what might come next for Sweet Luca, the Illinois-bred who upset the $300,000 Kentucky Downs Turf Dash on Monday. Sweet Luca isn’t Breeders’ Cup eligible, and Block said he hadn’t even really considered the BC Turf Sprint for Sweet Luca in any case.