Prat has excellent weekend; will change agents next weekend

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Friday morning, at the beginning of the race week at Santa Anita, jockey Flavien Prat was tied for fourth in the standings with 19 wins, seven fewer than leader Juan Hernandez.

By Monday evening, Prat led the standings with 30 wins, one more than Hernandez.

Prat could be well clear in the standings very soon.

Jockeys Umberto Rispoli, who is third with 27 wins but served a suspension day on Monday for a recent whip infraction, and Joel Rosario, who was fourth in the standings through Monday with 26 wins, are booked to ride in Saudi Arabia on Saturday and will be absent from Santa Anita until the final weekend of the month.

Prat is staying put for the foreseeable future, and will compete with Hernandez and Abel Cedillo for leading mounts in coming days. Through Monday, Cedillo was fifth in the standings with 24, well within striking range of the top.

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Prat had three wins on Friday, one on Saturday, four on Sunday, and three on Monday. He won the last three races on Sunday’s card, with Going Global in the Grade 3 Sweet Life Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs on turf, a $10,000 claimer with Uno Trouble Maker, and a maiden race for California-breds on turf with Big Talker.

“I thought I had good chances,” he said after Sunday’s races.

Prat said sometimes that approach can fool a jockey.

“When you think you have good chances, none of them can run,” he said.

That was not the case on Sunday. Going Global, trained by Phil D’Amato, showed a sharp rally to win the Sweet Life Stakes in her American debut and first start since a win in a seven-furlong race on the synthetic track at Dundalk Racecourse in Ireland on Nov. 11.

“She really gave me a good kick,” Prat said. “Phil was pretty confident. Last race, she was dead last in a 16-horse field and split the field and kind of ran the way she did” Sunday.

“I’m pretty sure she can do a mile here.”

Through Monday, Prat had 998 career wins in North America. He won 296 races in his native France from 2008 to 2014. Monday, Prat won his sixth stakes of the meeting on Superstition in the Wishing Well Stakes for fillies and mares on turf. Rosario leads all riders with seven stakes wins.

Prat’s successful weekend occurred days after he announced on Feb. 10 that he was switching agents, dismissing Derek Lawson for Brad Pegram. Lawson is booking mounts on behalf of Prat through Sunday.

Prat has ridden in California since 2009, initially only during the winters while spending the rest of the year in France. Prat began riding in California on a full-time basis in the winter of 2014-15. Lawson booked his mounts through those years as Prat rose in prominence.

Prat, 28, has been a leading rider on the Southern California circuit in recent years. He has won the riding title at the Santa Anita winter-spring meetings the last two years and has won the title at four of the last five Del Mar summer meetings. In 2019, Prat rode Country House, who was promoted from second to first in the Kentucky Derby after Maximum Security was disqualified for causing interference.

Prat was Lawson’s only focus. Pegram also books mounts on behalf of Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith, who rides much less frequently than Prat, concentrating on maiden races, allowance races and stakes. Through Monday, Smith had 6 wins from 38 mounts at the meeting. Prat had 141 mounts.

Prat said on Wednesday “that it was time to make a change” regarding agents.

Sunday, Prat said working with Pegram “will be a different approach” and that he was not concerned about working with an agent who represents two riders.

“We have to make our mark,” he said. “With him working for both of us in our bests interests we’ll be fine.”

Sunday’s four-win day was the first time Prat had that many wins on a program since Oct. 4 at Santa Anita. Cedillo had four wins on Jan. 22, the only other rider to accomplish the milestone at the current meeting, which began on Dec. 26. Prat had a personal-best six wins on a single card at Santa Anita on May 17, 2020.

“I thought this week, and I think next week, I’ve got some good mounts,” Prat said. “Derek was telling me by the end of February I should move up and be in a good spot.”

Prat had already reached a good spot by the middle of the month.