Prat's six-win Sunday earns another Del Mar title

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Flavien Prat won six races on a single card for the fourth time in his career on Sunday at Del Mar, and for the second time this year.

Prat was a victory short of equaling the most wins on a single program at Del Mar, a milestone accomplished by Victor Espinoza in 2006 and Drayden Van Dyke in 2018.

Prat equals Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay Jr., and Rudy Rosales as jockeys who have won six races on a program at Del Mar. Pincay won six races twice.

Prat has won six races at Santa Anita three times, most recently on Jan. 1 of this year.

On Sunday, Prat won with his first four mounts, including the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes for 2-year-olds with Speed Boat Beach. He finished third with I Know Cash Flow in the sixth and rebounded to win the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes with Regal Glory in the seventh.

Prat finished fourth in the eighth race aboard Oncoming and won the day’s final race on Earls Rock.

“I had some good chances,” he said after Sunday’s final race. “It’s great. To be honest, so many times I come to the races and I think I can win five or six and if I have one it was a good day.”

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Prat began Sunday trailing Juan Hernandez in the jockey standings 20 to 18, but his big day propelled him to the riding title for the track’s autumn meeting with 24 wins, the seventh time he has won or tied for a title at Del Mar.

This has been a different season for Prat.

For the first time in his career, the 30-year-old Prat left California in early spring to ride primarily in New York from the spring to early fall. He finished second in the jockey standings at Saratoga during the summer and was 10th in the standings at the Del Mar summer meeting, held largely simultaneously with Saratoga, even though he rode only four days of the season.

Popular among owners and trainers, Prat had six wins on the first two weekends of the Del Mar autumn meeting from Nov. 11-13 and Nov. 18-20, eight wins on the racing week of Nov. 24-27, and 10 wins from Friday through Sunday last weekend.

“It’s good to come back and have people give you the opportunities,” he said.

Prat plans to ride in California until early spring before following the same itinerary next year. More immediate plans include riding the major stakes at the Los Alamitos December meeting the next two weekends and preparing for the start of the Santa Anita meeting on Dec. 26.

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