Beginning Friday, there are 27 races remaining over the final three days of the Del Mar autumn meeting that ends on Sunday. It may take all weekend to sort out the jockey standings after the 16-day season. Through last Sunday, the most recent day of racing, perennial leader Juan Hernandez led the standings with 13 wins, one more than Antonio Fresu and Umberto Rispoli. Over the final three days, Hernandez will be the busiest with 20 mounts. Fresu has 17, one more than Rispoli. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Hernandez has won the last four riding titles at Del Mar, beginning with the summer meeting in 2022. He has been equally dominant at Santa Anita in recent years, particularly since Flavien Prat relocated to the East Coast for part of the year in the spring of 2022. Rispoli, 36, is seeking his first riding title since moving to California from Hong Kong in December 2019. He nearly won the Del Mar summer title in 2020, when the meeting was held during pandemic lockdown conditions, finishing second to Prat, 50 to 49. This weekend, Rispoli’s 16 mounts include six of the seven turf stakes. “It would be nice for my career to be a title winner,” he said on Wednesday afternoon. “I think I deserve to win one.” Rispoli was scheduled to ride for the first time in his career at Fair Grounds on Thursday before returning to Del Mar for Friday’s program. With seven turf stakes from Friday through Sunday, finding numerous winners will be difficult, particularly with the presence of several nationally prominent riders. “There are a lot of good races and a lot of jockeys from out of town,” Rispoli said. “It will make our jobs complicated. That’s what I like, the competition. You improve your skills.” A win in a maiden race or a claiming race may determine the role of leading rider this weekend as much as a lucrative stakes. Hernandez may have an advantage, Rispoli said. “It’s always difficult,” Rispoli said. “Juan rides more races than I do. I’m close.” For the year through Wednesday, Rispoli had 112 wins from 580 mounts who had earned $9,665,608. Before the end of the year, Rispoli is highly likely to surpass his personal American earnings record of more than $10.1 million set in 2021. “The year is not over yet,” he said. “I think I’ve been successful all year.” Rispoli’s leading runner has been the turf star Johannes, who won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile and three other stakes before finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 2. “I had a beautiful Breeders’ Cup – two seconds and two thirds on five mounts,” he said. “I can’t really complain.” After the Del Mar meeting ends on Sunday, Rispoli will ride sparingly at the Los Alamitos December meeting before resuming full-time action with the start of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26. It’s not clear whether he will ride Johannes that day. Johannes, who worked a half-mile in 48 seconds at Santa Anita on Thursday, has the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25 as an early winter goal. Trainer Tim Yakteen said on Thursday that the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 is a possible prep race for Johannes. Fresu has only one mount on Sunday, Game Warrior in the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf, the day he begins a five-day suspension. Fresu recently had an appeal of a five-day penalty from the summer rejected by the California Horse Racing Board. The final four days of the suspension are scheduled for the first four days of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting – Dec. 26-29. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.