By Noel Michaels

Jockey Joel Rosario guides Idol after their victory within the Santa Anita Handicap – Picture Courtesy of Benoit Picture

The main riders on the New York winter meet at Aqueduct are Dylan Davis, Trevor McCarthy, Kendrick Carmouche, and Manny Franco. In a month or so, that may start to vary as one of the best riders within the recreation return dwelling for the spring.

The slimmed down winter driving colony will beef up significantly for the Massive A spring meet, the beginning of the Belmont meet on the finish of April, and the Saratoga summer season season. The Ortiz brothers, Irad and Jose, are returning. So are Joel Rosario, Luis Saez, and John Velazquez.

The exodus to New York begins after the Gulfstream winter meet, adopted by the times after the Santa Anita Derby (G1) on April 9, and the top of Keeneland meet, which runs April 8-29.

Prat and Rispoli are set to begin driving in New York after the Santa Anita Derby. Each mentioned they’re leaving southern California for higher top-level stakes alternatives. For Prat, there’s probably a greater probability he can win sufficient races to compete for an Eclipse Award because the nation’s high jockey. He was a finalist in 2021, with Rosario profitable and Irad Ortiz second.

Prat already had plans to ship out of California for Dubai World Cup Day, the place he can have mounts on Sizzling Rod Charlie within the World Cup (G1), Pinehurst within the UAE Derby (G2), and Dr. Schivel within the Golden Shaheen. Prat will then return to Santa Anita by way of the Santa Anita Derby card earlier than transferring to Keeneland after which New York.

Prat, 29, a local of France, owns a number of driving titles at Santa Anita and Del Mar and is the runaway main jockey on the present Santa Anita meet with 62 wins from 205 mounts (30%). He leads the Santa Anita standings by 26 wins over second-leading jockey Juan Hernandez with 36. Prat gained 246 races with purses of $23,214,813 in 2021, which each marked profession bests.

Jockey Flavien Prat celebrates aboard Nation Home after being declared the winner of the 145th Kentucky Derby. Picture courtesy of John Minchillo / Related Press

Rispoli, 33, a local of Italy, burst on the scene just a few years in the past and made an enormous run on the 2020 Del Mar summer season driving title till settling for second with 49 victories, one in need of Prat’s meet-leading 50. Since then, Rispoli has been a fixture within the high 3 at almost each SoCal race meet, however he’s at the moment solely seventh within the Santa Anita winter standings with 16 wins from 119 mounts (13%).

Whether or not or not Prat and Rispoli can crack the highest 5 in New York is anybody’s guess, and it additionally stays to be seen what influence their arrival can have on New York’s main winter riders, who yearly battle to take care of any stay mounts at Belmont and Saratoga.

Dylan Davis has loved a breakout winter season at Aqueduct with 52 wins from 244 begins (22%). The identical has been true to a lesser extent for McCarthy (45-for-256, 18%) and Carmouche (43-for-233, 18%). Jose Lezcano additionally stayed put in New York this winter and has achieved effectively with a file of 31-for-193, 16%.  These are the sorts of riders that shall be harm by the arrival of Prat and Rispoli. They’re more likely to see their win percentages plunge into the 5-10% vary at Belmont and Saratoga.

The departure of Prat and Rispoli opens up every kind of alternatives within the SoCal driving colony, the place the main rider this summer season now initiatives to be Juan Hernandez. Diego Herrera, Abel Cedillo, and Tyler Baze all determine to maneuver up within the standings, barring the arrival of a brand new big-name jockey coming to experience at Del Mar to fill the void

Noel Michaels has been concerned in lots of points of thoroughbred racing for greater than 20 years, as a Breeders’ Cup-winning proprietor and as a author, writer, handicapper, editor, supervisor and promoter of the game for a variety of corporations together with Each day Racing Kind and Nassau County Off-Observe Betting.

He is also thought to be the main supply of stories and knowledge for handicapping tournaments and the writer of the “Handicapping Contest Handbook: A Horseplayer’s Information to Handicapping Tournaments”, which made his title nearly synonymous with the increasingly-popular match scene.

Along with contributing to US Racing, he’s additionally an analyst on the Arlington Park broadcast staff.