Florent Geroux will ride at Del Mar this summer

Florent Geroux will ride at Del Mar this summer after spending the bulk of last summer at Ellis Park.

Geroux's agent, Doug Bredar, told Horse Racing Nation Thursday that horsemen have asked Geroux for years to come to the California track.

"Our mentality was just that the timing is right this year," Bredar said. "We did not want to go to Saratoga. And Ellis Park is kind of Ellis Park – nothing wrong with it, but now when you're racing for the kind of purses that we do at Keeneland and Churchill, it's kind of a letdown. Many, many of the horsemen at Del Mar have asked us to go through the years. We just felt it was a really good opportunity."

Bredar noted that travel from San Diego "might be a little more challenging." But he said for now, the only Del Mar race day that Geroux is going to miss "for sure" is July 23, when he will ride Cyberknife in the Haskell (G1) "and hopefully a couple of others" on the card.

Del Mar opens on July 22, with the first entries being drawn July 19. And Geroux will be traveling plenty before he heads west.

He'll be in Saratoga on July 15 and 16, riding Set Piece in the Forbidden Apple (G3) and Mo Strike in the Sanford (G3).

This weekend, he'll be at Horseshoe Indianapolis for the Indiana Derby and Oaks card. He also will go to Parx, Colonial Downs, plus "probably a couple of trips to Ellis," Bredar said.

Geroux, winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby aboard the elevated Mandaloun, has a record of 356: 58-59-50 this year and earnings of $7,564,538.