Jockey Evin Roman, the leading rider at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California, has moved to Kentucky. The champion apprentice jockey of 2017, Roman, 25, made the transition earlier this week and will have his first mount at Turfway Park on Thursday evening. Roman said in an interview on Wednesday that the looming closure of Golden Gate Fields in June was the deciding factor in the decision. Golden Gate Fields is the flagship track in Northern California. Roman said he considered moving away from Northern California in recent years. “I like California,” Roman said. “I need to make a move. I want to keep going. I want to win big races.” Roman is booked on two mounts on Thursday evening and one on Saturday. He is not riding on Friday in order to serve a one-day suspension for a whip violation at Golden Gate Fields on Jan. 14. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. Brayson Cox, who represents Axel Concepcion, will book mounts on behalf of Roman. Cox said on Thursday that Roman will ride through the Turfway Park meeting and is likely to ride in Indiana in the spring, with the possibility of taking mounts at the prestigious Keeneland meeting. “Indiana would be what I think will happen,” Cox said. “If you can get business at Keeneland, you have to ride there. Indiana will be a good opportunity.” Roman’s move is a loss to the Golden Gate Fields meeting, which is scheduled to run through June 9. Through Sunday, Roman led all riders at Golden Gate Fields with 20 wins since the meeting began on Dec. 26. Asseal Espinoza was second with 16, closely followed by Alexander Chavez with 15 wins. Through Sunday, Roman has won 854 races from 4,602 mounts in the United States in his career. He rode 174 winners in 2023, one less than his career best of 175 achieved in 2021, and slightly more than the 166 he amassed in his first year of riding in 2017. Roman tied for the riding title at the 2017 spring-summer meeting at Santa Anita, and won the title at the track’s autumn meeting that year. In 2017 at Del Mar, Roman finished in a tie for second in the standings at the track’s famous summer meeting. Roman moved from Southern California to Northern California in the summer of 2020. Roman won the riding title at the 2021-2022 winter-spring meeting at Golden Gate Fields, and tied for the title at the track’s brief late summer-autumn meeting last year. Roman acknowledged that gaining a position among the leading riders at Turfway Park will be difficult. There are “a lot more horses and more money,” he said. “Everything is better. It’s tough.” Roman’s absence from Golden Gate Fields will aid riders such as Espinoza in the short-term. Chavez begins a seven-day suspension on Friday for causing interference that led to his mount being disqualified from first and placed fifth in the fourth race on Jan. 15. Chavez, 25, was the leading rider at the Golden Gate autumn meeting that ended in early December. Since arriving from Ohio in December 2022, Chavez has been given eight suspensions for riding infractions covering 36 days of racing. The current suspension covers racing days through Feb. 9, or more than two weeks of racing at Golden Gate Fields, which runs on a Friday-through-Sunday basis. Espinoza said on Wednesday that he is changing his short-term career plans, and will travel to Turf Paradise to ride there on weekdays while continuing to ride at Golden Gate Fields. Turf Paradise opens its winter-spring meeting on Monday. Espinoza has seven mounts from Monday through Wednesday. Espinoza said he has no short-term plans to leave Golden Gate. “I’ll stick around,” he said. “I’m trying to be leading rider. Weekdays, I’ll ride at Turf Paradise. “I don’t have any plans after Golden Gate shuts down. I’ll take it day-by-day and see where things are at the end of the meet.” Espinoza, 24, said he is eager to try riding on a daily basis even if it does involve a two-hour flight from Oakland to Phoenix twice a week. Such a schedule will be a change from quiet weekdays waiting for Friday racing at Golden Gate Fields. “I like” the action, he said. “On weekdays, I don’t do anything other than work horses in the mornings and work out.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.