Del Mar Press Release

Jockey Drayden Van Dyke captures the Jockey track title

Drayden Van Dyke went from six behind in the rider standings to one in front with a Del Mar record-tying seven wins on Sunday, August 19, and tenaciously held on through the final 11 days of the meeting to secure his first major Southern California riding championship at the 79th Del Mar summer meeting.

The 23-year-old native of Louisville, Ky., overtook defending champion Flavien Prat, who was serving a three-day suspension at the time, to take a 26-25 lead and finished the meeting with 42 wins to 37 for Prat. It tied for the highest win total since 2014.

Van Dyke had won titles at the brief Los Alamitos meetings during an Eclipse Award-winning apprentice campaign in 2014, but the championship was a first at Del Mar or Santa Anita in five years on the circuit.

Van Dyke was also the top rider for stakes wins with nine. Prat and Tyler Baze had seven each. John Sadler had eight stakes victories, tying a personal record at Del Mar, highlighted by the victory by Accelerate in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic.

DEL MAR STATISTICS

Jockey Standings

(Current Through Monday, September 3, 2018 Inclusive)

Jockey Starts 1st 2nd 3rd Win% In-money% Money Won
Drayden Van Dyke 160 42 17 21 26% 50% $2,754,118
Flavien Prat 146 37 26 13 25% 52% $2,523,977
Tyler Baze 178 25 21 18 14% 36% $1,495,945
Assael Espinoza 193 21 18 20 11% 31% $866,598
Heriberto Figueroa 119 19 13 8 16% 34% $576,590
Mario Gutierrez 125 17 23 14 14% 43% $1,344,809
Geovanni Franco 159 17 19 21 11% 36% $931,847
Tiago Pereira 125 14 16 18 11% 38% $727,352
Joseph Talamo 126 13 10 12 10% 28% $844,571
Evin Roman 129 12 14 11 9% 29% $598,138