Starting in January and through the month of December, Flavien Prat was focused on putting together a championship year and on opening day at Santa Anita, he put an exclamation point on what turned out to be an outstanding record setting 2024.
For a few weeks, Prat was tied with Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey for the most graded stakes wins in a single season but after Thursday's win in the Gr. II Mathis Mile, Prat stands alone as the record holder with 56 in addition to setting the record for stakes wins in a single year with 82.
The panel of racing experts voted Prat Jockey of the Week for December 23-December 29.
The weekly honor recognizes jockeys for significant riding accomplishments and who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.
On Santa Anita's traditional opening day of December 26, trainer Phil D'Amato gave a leg up to Prat on King of Gosford in the Gr. II Mathis Mile for three-year-olds on the turf. Off as the favorite, King of Gosford led from gate to wire to post a length win in 1:34.49 and for Prat to set a new graded stakes record held by legendary Jerry Bailey since 2003.
"I think there couldn't be a better place to win it than here at Santa Anita," said Prat to Santa Anita publicity. "It is definitely worth all the work when something like this happens."
Prat closed out 2024 with one more stakes win on Sunday in the one mile Eddie Logan Stakes on the turf posting a neck win in 1:37.70 for trainer Jeff Mullins aboard two-year-old Artisias.
A native of France, Prat's goal with the decision to move his tack to the east coast after several years in southern California and collecting numerous leading rider titles at Santa Anita and Del Mar was to win the Eclipse Award as Outstanding Jockey. He began 2024 with four stakes wins in the month of January including the Gr. I Pegasus aboard National Treasure.
"It started well and I never had a period where it slowed down," said Prat to the Daily Racing Form.
Riding at Saratoga full-time, Prat set a record for stakes wins with 18, 14 of which were graded and he won the Breeders' Cup Classic (Gr. I) for the first time with Sierra Leone.
On the possibility of winning the Eclipse Award, Prat spoke to NYRA publicity, "It means a lot. Honestly it would be a dream come true. It's something you work all your life for and to achieve it would be something, just to do it once. Hopefully, it would be great and would be something I would remember forever."
Prat's first chance for a stakes win in 2025 will come this Saturday riding at Oaklawn Park.
Other contenders for Jockey of the Week included Francisco Arrieta who won his 1,000th career race and a stakes race, Frankie Dettori with two graded stakes wins including the Gr. I Malibu, Kazushi Kimura with two stakes wins including the Gr. I La Brea and Hall of Famer John Velazquez with two stakes wins including the Gr. I American Oaks.
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