Van Dyke Captures Los Alamitos Riding Title

Apprentice jockey Drayden VanDyke wrapped up the riding title at the inaugural Summer Thoroughbred Festival with a pair of victories Sunday at Los Alamitos.

The Kentucky-born and Arkansas-raised VanDyke, who will turn 20 in September, finished with 12 victories, four more than runner-up Joe Talamo.

It was the first riding title for an apprentice in Southern California since the late J.C. Gonzalez led at Fairplex Park in 1998.

“It means a lot,’’ said VanDyke, who rode only seven of the eight days of the meet, missing July 12 when he was at Arlington Park where he was aboard a winner for trainer Tom Proctor.

“It’s really cool to get the first riding title at Los Alamitos in its first thoroughbred meet (since the last Orange County Fair season in 1991). It’s pretty cool to go down in history.

 “It was a long two meets tying together at Santa Anita, so it was kind of dragging along the last couple of weeks and I got a couple of suspensions, so it kind of ruined my momentum. I got here, a new place, new horses and it just took off.’’

Peter Miller topped the trainer standings with three wins. He is three victories shy of 500 for his career.