Jockey Prat ending his layoff with top Arkansas Derby week mounts

Photo: Eclipse Sportswire

After being forced into a month off by the suspension of racing at Santa Anita Park, jockey Flavien Prat will hit the Arkansas ground running later this week with rides on the Kentucky Oaks futures favorite and on last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner.

And he is not worried about being rusty.

“If you stay in shape it’s like riding a bike,” said Prat, who last rode in a race on March 22. “You never lose a bit of it.”

The leading rider this season at Santa Anita, Prat will be aboard Venetian Harbor on Friday in the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Then he will be on Storm The Court on Saturday in one of the two divisions of the Grade 1, $500,000 Arkansas Derby. Both of these Oaklawn Park races will award the winner 100 points toward qualifying for this summer’s Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby.

Where there is an air of inscrutability with Storm The Court, there is unquestionable optimism surrounding Venetian Harbor. The Munnings filly is 2-for-2 on the dirt, winning by a combined 19¼ lengths for trainer Richard Baltas. Prat rode her last time out Feb. 8, when she triumphantly cruised as a 3-10 favorite against only four rivals in the Las Virgenes (G2).

“She was pretty sharp that whole race,” Prat said Sunday morning in a telephone conversation from his home in Monrovia, Calif. “She finally got a breather around the turn, and sometimes it can go either way. Either they can stop or they re-engage. And she re-engaged. That was pretty impressive.”

Bettors took notice by making her 5-1 in off-shore Oaks futures and 4-1 in Europe, according to Oddschecker. But that mile 2 1/2 months ago at Santa Anita will pale by comparison to the 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn Park, where Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner British Idiom will also be in the field of 14 that includes six graded stakes winners.

“She has been training really well,” Prat said of Venetian Harbor. “As of right now distance doesn’t seem a problem. It seems like she can go (the Oaks distance of) a mile and an eighth. You never know until they run it, but it seems like she can do it.”

Prat said that “she’s probably going to be forwardly placed” from post 2 on Friday. That is no surprise considering Venetian Harbor has led at every call in her two dirt races.

Since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at odds of 45-1, Storm The Court finished fourth to Bob Baffert-trained Nadal going short Feb. 9 in the seven-furlong San Vicente Stakes (G2). Next, with Prat on rival Thousand Words, Joel Rosario rode Storm The Court to a third-place finish last month to another Baffert colt – Authentic – in the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe (G2).

“I thought he had an OK comeback (in the San Vicente); not great, not bad,” Prat said. “Then I thought he ran a good race against (Authentic). He ran his race that day. Hopefully he stops up and improves from those two races.”

Although his job requires him to be in the moment from race to race, Prat does not deny himself the opportunity to look ahead to the Kentucky Derby, which he won last year 22 minutes after the race when Country House was promoted over the disqualified Maximum Security.

“It’s still going to be the biggest race,” he said. “But everything is going to be bizarre. It’s not the first weekend of May. And obviously those 3-year-olds are going to be a lot more mature. They will be grown men, which is going to make the race different.”

Prat said he will fly from southern California to Arkansas on Thursday, ride Friday and Saturday and return home Sunday morning. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, he said he is not concerned about traveling.

“When they canceled races here at Santa Anita I was worried,” he said. “But no, not really anymore. I think people have been quarantined for long enough that the virus kind of slowed down.”

Ron Flatter has covered horse racing around the world for more than 30 years. Currently based in Nevada and working for the Vegas Stats & Information Network, he is host of the weekly Ron Flatter Racing Pod and on Twitter @ronflatter.

Read More

In an airtight duel down the homestretch, long shot Kappa Kappa got her head down at the finish...
Jockey José Ortiz called for Barnes to accelerate in the second turn Saturday. The up-and-down colt more than...
Sierra Leone breezed a half-mile in 49.08 seconds on Saturday over the Oklahoma dirt training track at Saratoga...
Calandagan atoned for his narrow defeat in last year’s Group 1 Champion Stakes as he stormed to a 2...
He came, he gave us all a fright, and then he conquered. Ka Ying Rising showed Sydney why...