DEL MAR, Calif. - A group of riders, including red-hot leading jockey Juan Hernandez, were visiting between workouts on the Del Mar backstretch on Sunday morning when the conversation turned to a forthcoming jockey karaoke event that evening to benefit injured riders. Some of the banter focused on who was going to sing. Hernandez, for one, was not raising his hand. He may lead the standings, but he will not lead the chorus. “I can’t sing,” Hernandez said with a laugh. “I’m going tonight just to support.” Hernandez does win races, and sometimes in bunches. On Saturday’s 10-race program, Hernandez won a career-best six races for the first time in his career. He was one win shy of the all-time Del Mar record of seven wins set by Victor Espinoza in 2006 and equaled by Drayden Van Dyke in 2018. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Hernandez joins Flavien Prat (2022), Laffit Pincay Jr. (1976 and 1978), Rudy Rosales (1969) and Bill Shoemaker (1954) as riders with six wins in a day at Del Mar. Hernandez had won five races on six occasions in his career - twice at Golden Gate Fields, three times at Santa Anita and at Del Mar last December. On Saturday, Hernandez won a maiden race for 2-year-old fillies with Bottle of Rouge ($4); the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes for 2-year-olds on the ultra-impressive Desert Gate ($2.40); an allowance race aboard the 3-year-old Privman ($4); an allowance race on turf with Final Boss ($8); a $10,000 claimer on Broadway Unions ($4), and the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap with Heredia ($5.40). All but Final Boss were favored. In the card's final race, with a chance to tie Espinoza and Van Dyke, Hernandez could manage only a sixth-place finish on the maiden Ridegold. “We had a great day,” he said. “I was trying to go for seven.” Aboard Heredia, Hernandez urged the mare to the front, set a slow pace and won by 2 1/4 lengths. “What a great race he rode,” trainer Graham Motion said on Sunday. “He’s riding with tremendous confidence. When you’re in that kind of zone, you make the right decisions.” Through Sunday, Hernandez had 26 wins at the current meeting, which began July 18 and runs through Sept. 7. Antonio Fresu, who had a remarkable seven second-place finishes on Saturday, ranked second with 16 wins. Hernandez, 33, has won the last five riding titles at Del Mar, beginning with the 2022 summer meeting and including the fall meetings in 2023 and 2024. He won a career-best 49 races at Del Mar in summer 2022. Earlier this year, Fresu won the riding title at the Santa Anita spring meeting, ending Hernandez’s streak of seven consecutive riding titles there beginning with the winter-spring meeting of 2022-2023. Through Sunday, Hernandez had six stakes wins at the current Del Mar meeting, including the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes on the highly promising filly Seismic Beauty, a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 1 at Del Mar. His latest was Himika in Sunday’s Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes. Desert Gate, trained by Bob Baffert, is unbeaten. In the $150,000 Best Pal Stakes, Desert Gate dueled with Punto Forty to the turn before pulling clear to win the six-furlong race by 8 3/4 lengths in what is expected to be a prep for the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 7. The winner of a five-furlong maiden race by 2 1/4 lengths at Santa Anita on June 13, Desert Gate was an eager colt early in the Best Pal, Hernandez said. “He kind of surprised me,” Hernandez said on Sunday. “Last time, when I rode him at Santa Anita, he was a little lazy. I had to push him to get him in the race. I had to ask him at the quarter pole. “Yesterday was totally different. He was really game. He pulled me there. “He was trying to pass the other horse at the half-mile. I was like, No, no. Not yet. He tried again around the three-eighths. He tried to take off and it was way too early. “He tried again around the turn and I let him go. I let him go a little bit and he took off. He switched leads. I never asked him.” On Sunday morning, Hernandez’s workout roster included the multiple stakes winner Sweet Azteca, who is booked to start in the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap for fillies and mares on Aug. 24; and Queen Maxima, a 5-year-old mare who won three turf sprint stakes earlier this year who may face males in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap on Aug. 30. Along with Seismic Beauty, Hernandez and his agent, Craig O’Bryan, are building a book of mounts that could give Hernandez a first career win in the Breeders’ Cup on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Hernandez is winless in 21 Breeders’ Cup races, including a nose loss by Dr. Schivel in the 2021 Sprint. “I want to win the big races, the Breeders’ Cup or Triple Crown races,” Hernandez said. “That’s the goal.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.