Prat has travel plans for next few weeks

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Flavien Prat, the leading rider at the Del Mar summer meeting, is planning to ride at several venues in North America in the next few weeks while the Southern California circuit shifts to Los Alamitos beginning Friday.

Prat will ride at Belmont Park on Saturday and Sunday and is scheduled to ride the $1 million Jockey Club Derby and $750,000 Jockey Club Oaks there. Those races are for 3-year-olds on turf on Saturday.

He is booked to ride at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 12, Woodbine on Sept. 14, Los Alamitos on Sept. 19, and Parx Racing or Charles Town on Sept. 21, according to his agent, Derek Lawson.

The Del Mar summer meeting ended Monday. Through Sunday, Prat had won 40 races at the meet, 11 more than Drayden Van Dyke, who won the title at the 2018 summer meeting. Prat was the leading rider in 2017 and shared the title with Rafael Bejarano in 2016.

Sunday morning, Prat said winning the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Higher Power on Aug. 17 was the highlight of the Del Mar season.

“I think the Classic was key,” he said. “It’s the big race on the track you ride every day.”