Roman aboard several live ones for Thursday's opener

Evin Roman’s streak of riding titles in Southern California ended at the Del Mar summer meeting when the apprentice jockey finished in a tie for second, six wins behind Flavien Prat.

Roman shared the riding title with Prat at the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting earlier this year and was the clear leader at the Los Alamitos July meeting.

When the Los Angeles County Fair meeting begins a 12-day season at Los Alamitos on Thursday, Roman will again be a jockey to follow. Many leading riders on the circuit, including Prat, will take a break from riding on a daily basis, travel out-of-state for lucrative stakes, or will ride sparingly at Los Alamitos.

Roman is taking a different approach. He has six mounts on Thursday’s eight-race program, which begins at 2 p.m. Pacific, and is expected to be active through the meeting.

There are four stakes during the meet, including two $75,000 races on Saturday. There is no allowance race on the card Thursday, but the program does end with two maiden special weight races that drew fields of nine runners each.

Roman, 19, has leading chances through the program, notably with One I’m Running To in the second race, for $16,000 claimers at 5 1/2 furlongs; El Nino Fable in the fourth race, a $20,000 claimer for maidens; and Just Be Held in the fifth race, a $20,000 claimer.

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In the seventh race, a maiden special weight race for fillies and mares at six furlongs, Roman rides Jeweled for trainer Bob Baffert.

Jeweled was second by a half-length in a $62,500 claimer for maidens at Del Mar on Aug. 2 in her first start in a year. Jeweled must catch Cool Munnings, a 3-year-old filly who was fourth as the even-money favorite in her debut in a five-furlong turf race for maidens at Del Mar on Aug. 10. Cool Munnings set the pace after a slow start and faded in the final furlong.

In the final race, Roman rides the first-time starter Dark Vader, who starts from the outside post in a maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds at a mile. It not out of the question that the race could produce a starter for the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Sept. 30.

Dark Vader, a colt by Take of Ekati, is trained by Peter Eurton and has shown a steady pattern of workouts in recent months.

There are three other first-time starters who merit attention in the last race. The Eurton-trained Draft Pick starts from the rail. By Candy Ride, Draft Pick was purchased for $450,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale and races for Lee and Susan Searing.

Canadian Game, by Curlin, will debut for Paul and Zillah Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill. Canadian Game was bought for $375,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.'s 2-year-olds in training sale in March.

Inscom will start for Kaleem Shah and trainer Simon Callaghan, whose stable finished strongly at Del Mar. Inscom, by Distorted Humor, was bought for $850,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Maryland sale of 2-year-olds in training in May. Inscom is a half-brother to Lochte, a Grade 1 winner and six-time stakes winner.