Santa Anita: Jockey Leparoux to leave California to ride at Churchill, Gulfstream

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Julien Leparoux will relocate from Southern California to ride in Kentucky and Florida in the coming months, he said Sunday.

Leparoux plans to ride at Santa Anita through the end of the meeting next Sunday. His first day of riding at Churchill Downs will be Wednesday, Nov. 6. Leparoux plans to ride through that track’s autumn meeting, which ends Nov. 30, before moving to Gulfstream Park.

“I just want to come back to the East Coast,” he said of the decision.

Through Saturday, Leparoux was tied for eighth in the jockeys’ standings at the Santa Anita autumn meeting with eight wins. Earlier this year, he finished eighth at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with 28 wins, ninth at the Betfair Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting with 18 wins, and tied for fifth at Del Mar with 25 wins.

Leparoux, 30, will be represented by Steve Bass when he returns to Churchill Downs. Bass has represented Rosie Napravnik, who is relocating this fall to Fair Grounds, where she will be represented by agent Derek Ducoing. Bass also has booked mounts on behalf of Alan Garcia, who now will be represented by Donnie Richardson during the Churchill Downs autumn meeting.

Leparoux, the champion apprentice rider of 2006, has been a leading rider at Churchill Downs and Keeneland in the past. He relocated to Southern California in November 2012 and married the former Shea Mitchell, the daughter of trainer Mike Mitchell, last fall.

– additional reporting by Marty McGee