Jockey Van Dyke thriving one year after injury

ARCADIA, Calif. – The middle of February last year was a grim period for jockey Drayden Van Dyke. Weeks earlier, he had broken his arm in a gruesome spill at Santa Anita and had a cast that extended above his elbow.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he recalled this month. “I was in a lot of pain and on a lot of medication. There was a lot of stress.”

Van Dyke was sidelined until late June but managed to salvage the 2017 season, winning 61 races, close to the 69 victories he recorded in both 2015 and 2016. The momentum shows no sign of abating.

Through Thursday, Van Dyke ranked seventh in the jockey standings at the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita with 15 wins. On Monday, Van Dyke is bound for Hot Springs, Ark., to ride Mourinho in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn Park. Van Dyke, who finished high school in Hot Springs, has already been to Oaklawn Park once this year, to ride Mourinho to a front-running win in the Smarty Jones Stakes on Jan. 15, the colt’s first stakes win and the jockey’s first win at the track.

Mourinho can further enhance his credentials as a leading Triple Crown prospect on Monday in the $500,000 Southwest Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.

“I’m lucky to be in this spot compared to last year,” Van Dyke said.

Van Dyke, who is 23 and can pass for younger, began riding in 2013 and won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding apprentice jockey of 2014, the year he won two riding titles at Los Alamitos.

Van Dyke won his first Grade 1 stakes on Ring Weekend in the Frank Kilroe Mile in 2015 and had a solid 2016 season, winning six graded stakes.

In the second half of 2017, as he resumed riding following the arm injury, Van Dyke had the best span of his career, winning 10 graded stakes, including four Grade 1 races – the Cotillion Stakes with It Tiz Well, the Awesome Again Stakes on Mubtaahij, the Los Alamitos Starlet aboard Dream Tree, and the Malibu Stakes on City of Light.

Mubtaahij and Dream Tree are trained by Bob Baffert, with whom Van Dyke has become more closely allied in the last eight months. Van Dyke frequently works horses for Baffert in the mornings, including Mourinho.

“He’s definitely training better than he was going into the Smarty Jones,” Van Dyke said. “That’s a good thing.

“I’m really happy with his last two works. They won’t give me an easy lead again. If they do, that would be awesome.

“I think he can stalk. He’s a kind horse, not aggressive. I’m confident he likes that track, too.”

Van Dyke credits his agent, Brad Pegram, for helping him get into the Baffert barn. Once there, Van Dyke earned the right to stay, Baffert said.

“He’s learning as we go along,” Baffert said. “The good horses teach you more. He rides with a lot of confidence.”

Early in his career, Van Dyke exercised and rode horses for trainer Tom Proctor. Baffert said working for Proctor gave Van Dyke “a good foundation.”

“He brought him up the right way and made him appreciate how to work with horses,” Baffert said.

Van Dyke rode the 3-year-old filly Dream Tree to a victory in the Grade 2 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 4. Dream Tree is being pointed to the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 4, and Mourinho may end up in the Kentucky Derby a day later. Van Dyke has never ridden in the Kentucky Derby, but he attended the 2009 Derby, won by Mine That Bird. At the time, Van Dyke was a high school freshman in Louisville.

If Van Dyke makes it to the Derby this year, it will be very gratifying considering the events of the last 13 months.

“It would be a dream come true,” he said. “I want to get that experience if I have a chance.”