Flavien Prat
He nearly ran out of time but Klaravich Stable runner Capital Partner (GB) (Kingman {GB}) put in a furious rally down the middle of the Saratoga turf course Saturday to become a new 'TDN Rising Star'. The debuting colt, purchased for 360,000gns out of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1 last season, left himself with plenty of work to do early after getting squeezed back in a tight spot on the run into the first turn. Racing at the back of the second flight under Flavien Prat, the 9-5...
Even though Nysos (Nyquist) was 1-10 on the board, Saturday's GII San Diego Handicap was a race he didn't have to win. He sprinted in his last two starts and had never been the distance of a mile-and-a-sixteenth. He also has a couple of large gaps in his form, suggesting that trainer Bob Baffert was having a hard time keeping him together. None of that mattered in the San Diego. Flavin Prat, who flew in from Saratoga for the ride, rode a patient race and saved ground into the second...
Baoma Corp's 'TDN Rising Star' Nysos (c, 3, Nyquist--Zetta Z, by Bernardini), who is a neck away from being undefeated in six career starts, made just his second trip around two turns Saturday, resulting in a victory in the 1 1/16-mile GII San Diego Handicap at Del Mar. His fellow Bob Baffert-trained stablemate Mirahmadi (Into Mischief), a $1.05-million Keeneland buy who finished second in the GI Del Mar Futurity two years ago, set all the pace, holding off all but Nysos to complete the silver-haired trainer's exacta. MGSP Tarantino (Pioneerof...
The Saratoga meet has just gotten started and it's already appears that Mother Nature is ready for a nasty fight, one NYRA is going to have a hard time winning. On paper, Saturday's card looked excellent with the GII Bowling Green S. and the GI Diana S., plus three maiden 2-year-old races that included a lot of horse with a lot of potential. But the card was wrecked before it started, thanks to a deluge of rain Saturday morning. It came down hard and heavy for about an hour. They...
Jockey Flavien Prat had himself a year in 2024 on the way to his first Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey. How good was he? He set records for Stakes wins (82) and Graded Stakes wins (56). He won the Breeders' Cup Classic. He won 16 Grade I races. The list could go on, but he has turned the page. He will make no predictions for 2025. The 32-year-old French native just wants to keep on riding. He sat down with Tim Wilkin to talk about life as a top jockey...
SARATOGA SPRINGS--Just before 8 Saturday morning, Sovereignty (Into Mischief) beat the weather. But just barely. The GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes champ got his work in before the heaviest of yet another strong Saratoga thunderstorm pelted Saratoga Race Course. With rain beginning to fall, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was able to get Sovereignty out on the Oklahoma Training Track for a five-furlong work. Ridden by his assistant Neil Poznansky and working in company with stablemate Jefferson Street (Street Sense), Sovereignty covered the distance in 1:02.18 (5/12)....
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - From her office at Barn 83 on the Oklahoma Training Track, all trainer Cherie DeVaux has to do to get a glimpse of the horse is look out the window. And she sees him, across the way, standing in his stall. "He has this big, white face looking at you," DeVaux said, and she smiles. Gets her every time. 'He' is a 2-year-old colt who goes by the name of Dr. Agne (Into Mischief). He has never run but will on Friday when he starts his...
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - And now for the main event. With nine days of racing already in the books--a proper warmup by any measure, topped by the GI Belmont Stakes--the 157th season of racing at Saratoga begins Thursday with a 10-race program. It is the earliest-possible start in the calendar-driven schedule for the 40-day season that closes on Labor Day Sept. 1. With one exception in 1982, in the 45 years after racing resumed at Saratoga in 1946 following World War II, Saratoga was what eventually came to be known...
Flavien Prat, the reigning Eclipse Award-winner as Outstanding Jockey, earned his first riding title at a New York Racing Association meet when posting 43 wins at the Belmont at the Big A spring/summer meet which ran from May 1 through July 6. Statistics for the Belmont at the Big A spring/summer meet include the five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival and four-day July 4th Racing Festival, both of which were held at Saratoga Race Course. Prat, a 32-year-old native of Melun, Siene-et-Marne, France, enjoyed a major milestone at the meet when...
6th-Saratoga, $100,000, Msw, 7-5, 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:35.94, fm, 1 length. EMBRACE TIME (f, 2, Not This Time--Dontmesswithjoanne {SW, $180,638}, by Pioneerof the Nile), a firster from the Brad Cox barn, stood professionally in the gate for her debut. Kept under a tight hold early by Flavien Prat, she raced midpack on the outside as 7-2 Gorrono Ranch (War of Will) set the early pace. With Prat reserving Embrace Time while well off the :23.95 and :48.24 fractions, he finally gave the filly her cue on the turn. Fifth into...
Two months after he won the newly upgraded GI American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs as the favorite and a week after he was scratched out of the doubly rescheduled, weather-impacted GIII Penn Mile, Zulu Kingdom (Ire) (r, 3, Ten Sovereigns {Ire}--Zindziswa, by Smart Strike) was back in the winner's circle, capturing Saratoga's $200,000 GIII Manila Stakes Friday. Owned by Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, William Strauss, and Michael J. Caruso, Zulu Kingdom is now five for six since coming stateside and six for seven overall. The cut back in distance...
Second to Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in the both the GIII Florida Oaks and the GII Edgewood Stakes at 1 1/16 miles in her last two starts, Lush Lips (GB) finally broke through to the win Saturday in the Tepin Stakes at the mile at Churchill Downs. Shortened up for the first time since she made her North American debut a the mile at Kentucky Downs last summer, the 8-5 favorite had shown early speed in all of her prior races bar two but was relegated back in this spot to...