Luis Contreras will spend winter in Southern California

Jockey Luis Contreras has moved from Woodbine to Southern California and will begin riding locally at Los Alamitos on Dec. 16.

Contreras will be represented by Mike Ciani and is the latest in a group of riders who have announced they will be based in Southern California this winter. Kazushi Kimura, the leading rider at Woodbine, is moving to California later this month as is top international rider Frankie Dettori.

Flavien Prat and John Velazquez are riding the early months of the Santa Anita meeting that begins Dec. 26 as they did in the winter of 2021-22. Prat and Velazquez rode at the Del Mar autumn meeting that ended Sunday.

Prat led all riders at the Del Mar autumn meeting, edging Juan Hernandez, the leading rider at the Santa Anita winter-spring and Del Mar summer meetings earlier this year.

They will compete for mounts with riders such as Hector Berrios, Joe Bravo, Kyle Frey, Diego Herrera, Edwin Maldonado, Umberto Rispoli, and Ramon Vazquez who all finished in the top 10 in the standings at Del Mar.

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Hall of Famers Kent Desormeaux, Victor Espinoza, and Mike Smith also are part of an increasingly crowded roster of riders based in California throughout the year.

Contreras, 36, arrived in California on Monday, Ciani said. Through Sunday, Contreras ranked fifth in the standings at Woodbine with 66 wins.

The upcoming winter-spring meeting will be the third time Contreras has ridden extensively at Santa Anita. He won three races from 41 mounts at the Oak Tree meeting in the autumn of 2008, and won 10 races from 89 mounts in the early months of the 2016-17 season.

This year, Contreras has won 80 races from 709 mounts. He has won seven stakes in the United States and Canada. Contreras was based at Oaklawn Park last winter, winning 17 races from 198 mounts, including two stakes.

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