Van Dyke to ride in Kentucky in spring and early summer

Drayden Van Dyke, the leading rider at the two meetings at Del Mar in 2018 and a mainstay in Southern California since the beginning of his career in 2013, is moving to Kentucky this spring.

Retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who recently began representing Van Dyke, said Van Dyke will ride at Santa Anita through March and ride the spring meeting at Keeneland, which runs from April 2-23, and the spring-summer meeting at Churchill Downs, which goes from April 24 to June 26.

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Stevens notes that the Churchill Downs meet ends just before the Del Mar and Saratoga meetings start up.

“I know Drayden would like to come back for Del Mar,” he said.

Van Dyke, 26, won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s leading apprentice in 2014. Van Dyke has struggled at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, winning with 6 of 72 mounts.

“We’ve got to do a restart and a reboot,” Stevens said.

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Van Dyke is not riding this weekend after receiving a three-day suspension from Santa Anita stewards for excessive use of the whip in the second race on Feb. 15 aboard Crash Corrigan, who finished second in a maiden special weight race. Van Dyke was deemed to have used his whip more than the allowed six times in a race, his fourth such offense in the last two months.

On March 6, Van Dyke is booked to ride Tizamagician in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. The $400,000 Big Cap at 1 1/4 miles is the richest dirt race of the meeting for older horses.