DEL MAR, Calif. – Shortly after he arrived in Southern California from Hong Kong in late 2019, jockey Umberto Rispoli set a goal of winning a riding title at Del Mar or Santa Anita. Nearly six years later, Rispoli reached that achievement at the Del Mar autumn meeting that ended Sunday. Coincidentally, he is bound for Hong Kong this week to ride an international jockey competition at Happy Valley Racecourse on Dec. 10 and to ride at Sha Tin Racecourse on Dec. 14. Rispoli ended the Del Mar meeting with 17 wins, three more than Antonio Fresu. Mirco Demuro had 12 wins, with Hector Berrios and Armando Ayuso completing the top five with 11 wins. Rispoli’s winners included four stakes, four allowance races, three maiden races, three claiming races for maidens, two claiming races, and a starter allowance. Over the final weekend, he won two stakes – Saturday’s Grade 1 Hollywood Derby with Salamis and Sunday’s Stormy Liberal Stakes with Unconquerable Keen. Rispoli won six races on dirt and 11 on turf. He had 76 mounts, second only to Fresu with 85. At the Del Mar summer meeting that ended in September, Rispoli finished fourth with 23 wins, well behind Juan Hernandez with 45 victories. At that meeting, Rispoli had 127 mounts, ranking seventh in terms of activity. Rispoli traveled on occasions during the summer to ride at other venues. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “We always talk about it,” he said of a title. “I never went for it because I’m riding less than the others. “You need business from both surfaces. At the beginning when I first came [to California], I had a lot of business on the turf, less on dirt. “I know I can ride both surfaces.” Rispoli has been close to winning a riding title in the past at Del Mar. In the summer of 2020, his first full year of riding in California, Rispoli rode 49 winners, finishing second to Flavien Prat who had 50 wins. A native of Italy, Rispoli, 37, will not ride full-time in California again until the start of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26. Rispoli needs three wins this month to equal his 2021 result of 130 wins for the year. Through Sunday, his mounts had earned more than $13.2 million this year, a personal best in the United States. On Sunday, Rispoli insisted he is taking the riding title in stride and remains focused on major stakes wins. “It’s a nice accomplishment,” he said. “I don’t think it would make me look like a better jockey or a bad jockey to win the title. “It’s more a personal thing. We’re more focused on winning big races. It’s a pleasure to be the leading rider in a place I really love it.” Of Rispoli’s 17 wins, seven were for trainer George Papaprodromou, who won his first training title at the autumn meeting with 11 wins. “Rispoli won the title because of me,” Papaprodromou said Monday morning with a laugh. Papaprodromou won the $177,000 Golden State Juvenile with Ocean Bear on Oct. 31, the second day of the meeting, and had two-win days on Nov. 2 and Nov. 24 to boost his stable. A native of Cyprus, Papaprodromou, 49, edged John Sadler, who had nine wins. Doug O’Neill won eight races, while Bob Baffert, Steve Knapp, and Phil D’Amato finished in a tie for fourth with seven wins. Papaprodromou has trained since 2003. The results of the autumn meeting were a turnaround from the Del Mar summer meeting, when Papaprodromou finished seventh in the standings with 12 wins. Papaprodromou finished third at the 2024 Santa Anita autumn meeting with 12 wins, two behind leader Baffert. At the recent Santa Anita fall meeting, he finished tied for eighth with five wins. “It means a lot, coming from a different country,” Papaprodromou said. “It’s a good accomplishment.” Papaprodromou said he plans to be active at the two-week Los Alamitos meeting that begins Friday. Ocean Bear is scheduled to start in the $100,000 King Glorious Stakes for statebred 2-year-olds at a mile on Dec. 14, closing day of the season. At Santa Anita this winter, Papaprodromou said he has high hopes for sustained success. “My horses are in top form,” he said. – additional reporting by Brad Free :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.