Prat star of Breeders’ Cup’s ‘fabulous two days’

HORSE RACING

Jockey wins twice, honored with the Shoemaker Award

Flavien Prat tosses flower petals after riding Moira to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Saturday at Del Mar. Prat was also aboard Sierra Leone, which won the featured Classic race. Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune

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By Bill Center

san Diego union-trbune

DEL MAR — Flavien Prat took a major step toward winning jockey of the year honors and Southern California horses turned in a strong showing while Japanese horses did not during the 41st Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar.

Prat, who scored back-to-back wins Saturday with Moira in the Filly & Mare Turf and Sierra Leone in the featured Classic, won the 22nd Bill Shoemaker Award as the outstanding jockey of the Breeders’ Cup.

Prat and Ryan Moore each had two wins. But Prat also had a second (Raging Sea in the Distaff) and two thirds (Domestic Product in the Dirt Mile and Mullikin in the Sprint) to score 25 points to Moore’s 20 on a 10-3-1 scoring system.

The Shoemaker Award goes to the jockey who has the most wins during the 14-race Breeders’ Cup. Moore’s victories came Friday with Henri Matisse in the Juvenile Turf and Lake Victoria in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

The Shoemaker Award was the first for Prat. Winning it can be a stepping stone to claiming an Eclipse Award, given annually to the jockey of the year. Prat has yet to win that title.

Meanwhile, Southern California horses scored three wins with five second-place finishes and two thirds during the Breeders’ Cup. The 19-horse Japanese contingent departed with no wins, one second and two thirds.

Trainer Bob Baffert had Citizen Bull and Gaming run 1-2, respectively, in the Juvenile. And Full Serrano won the Dirt Mile to give trainer John Sadler a third Breeders’ Cup win to follow his Classic winners Accelerate (2018) and Flightline (2022). Straight No Chaser won the Sprint.

There were a total of 25 Southern California horses running in the Breeders’ Cup.

Other runner-up performances were turned in by Vodka With A Twist (Juvenile Fillies), Iron Man Cal (Juvenile Turf), Motorious (Turf Sprint) and Johannes (Mile). Didia (Filly & Mare Turf) and Ag Bullet (Sprint) finished third.

Trainer Phil D’Amato had a Breeders’ Cup of near misses with seconds by Vodka With A Twist, Iron Man Cal and Motorious. He won on the Breeders’ Cup undercard with Speedy Wilson in the Golden State Juvenile and was second with Uncorked in the Goldikova Stakes.

GOOD TIMEs

Del Mar president and chief operating officer Josh Rubinstein said the track’s third Breeders’ Cup was “everything we hoped for and much more.”

“It was a fabulous two days of racing,” he said. “The facility has never looked better. Our team did a great job. It was great exposure for Del Mar and all of San Diego. NBC did a great job promoting the track and the area. And we had a beautiful day.

“Plus, we had a great mix of winners — east, west and international.”

Breeders’ Cup attendance totaled 67,418 for the two days — 30,982 on Friday and 36,436 on Saturday — with a total handle of $179,218,631, with $18,450,724 wagered at Del Mar itself.

The two-day attendance figure was down about 4% from the 70,420 total for Del Mar’s inaugural Breeders’ Cup in 2017. The 2021 total attendance was limited to 47,089 due to restrictions coming out of the pandemic.

“The difference between this year and 2017 was in the infield,” said Rubinstein. “We’ll make a few tweaks for 2025 when we host the event for a second straight year. Our teams agree that we got the big things right. Everyone was pleased for the entire week. It was a home run for the local community. Restaurants and hotels were packed.

“Right now, everyone is pretty exhausted here.”

Fall meeting

Del Mar’s regular, 11th annual fall meeting resumed Sunday. There will be racing Friday through Sunday over the next four weekends, ending on Dec. 1.

For the first time since the end of World War II, there will be no racing in Southern California on Thanksgiving Day. “It ended up being pretty much our slowest day at the track,” said Rubinstein.

The highlight of the fall meeting is the two-weekend Turf Festival Nov. 22-24 and Nov. 29-Dec. 1.

Jockeys Antonio Fresu, Frankie Dettori and Tiago Pereira all won two races Sunday, with Fresu taking the feature aboard Vibez ($27.20). Trainer George Papaprodromou also had two winners.

Notable

It will take one to four months to complete the necropsy on Jayarebe, the 3-year-old French-bred colt that collapsed on the track and died after finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Saturday, equine medical director Jeff Blea said.

The cause was preliminarily listed as “sudden death” due to an apparent heart attack.