Talent, drive put rising superstar in position for more
(Photo: Flavien Prat guided Thousand Words to victory in Santa Anita's Robert B. Lewis. Benoit Photo)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Feb. 27, 2020)
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By Jeremy Balan
The distance between the Los Angeles International Airport and the San Gabriel Valley, where Santa Anita sits, is about 30 miles.
As anyone who has driven in Southern California knows, itās no jaunt.
The stopping and going, the glow of red tail lights, the inexplicable grind of too many people crammed onto a highway ā that was the backdrop of the drive experienced by jockey Flavien Prat and his agent, Derek Lawson, in the middle of March last year.
But this drive was a little more uncomfortable.
Most times Prat heads out of town to ride in stakes around the country, Lawson picks his rider up from the airport. On this weekend Prat was returning from Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, where he rode in the Rebel Stakes.
A horse named Omaha Beach won the Rebel at 4-1, but Prat wasnāt aboard, because Lawson took him off the colt to ride fourth-place finisher Gunmetal Gray, who went off at 10-1. Prat had ridden Omaha Beach in the coltās first five startsāfour unsuccessful maiden special weight tries, and his dominating maiden breaker six weeks before the Rebel.
āI was very upset,ā Prat says with a chuckle now.
Itās easier to laugh about almost a year later, because seven weeks after that car ride, Lawson placed his hand on Pratās shoulder at Churchill Downs, in front of the world watching through NBCās cameras, and yelled, āYou just won the Kentucky Derby!ā
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It got worse before it got better.
Lawson had his reasons to take off Omaha Beach, but they donāt really matter. It was a mistake. A mistake that happens in the wheeling-and-dealing world of the jockey-agent game, but a mistake nonetheless. And Prat never got the mount back from Hall of Famer Mike Smith.
Omaha Beach went on to win the Arkansas Derby (Prat finished fifth aboard Galilean in the race) and rolled into Churchill Downs as the Kentucky Derby favorite.
āI knew he was pissed off,ā Lawson says. āI was pissed off, too. For the Derby, we could have gotten on Gray Magician, the (Todd) Pletcher horse (Cutting Humor), or Country House. I asked him, and he said, āOh, just do what you want!āā
Lawson got his rider on Country House, one of the longest shots of the 20 qualified horses. The colt had come in third, 6 3/4 lengths behind Omaha Beach, in the Arkansas Derby.
āNobody is perfect, and everybody makes mistakes,ā Prat says. āI donāt always ride the best race, so he can get mad at me, too. At the end of the day, itās horse racing. A lot can go wrong.ā
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Once the spotlight fully moved to Churchill, a lot went wrongāor right, depending on your perspective.
Omaha Beach scratched from the Derby because of an epiglottic entrapment, then the unthinkable happened ā Maximum Security became the first horse in Kentucky Derby history to cross the wire first and be disqualified from victory.
Prat still doesnāt have a great way to put into words the emotions he experienced that dayāfrom the painstaking wait as the stewards decided to disqualify Maximum Security to the surge after seeing Country Houseās No. 20 moved up to first on the tote board. After all the hullabaloo, Country House, off at 65-1, was declared the winner.
Although his mount wasnāt affected by Maximum Securityās interference, Prat was one of two jockeys to lodge an objection, along with Jon Court, who rode Long Range Toddy.
āYou win the Derby, which is a dream come true, but you didnāt cross the line first,ā Prat says.
āAs of right now, itās hard for me to explain. I canāt get the words to my feelings, but maybe in a few years, Iāll be able to explain.ā
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The Derby victory led to the greatest year of Pratās career. His mounts earned more than $19.6 million in purses, he won at the highest rate of his career for a full season (23 percent), and took down 19 graded stakes, including six grade 1 events.
The 27-year-old has sustained the success in 2020, with four graded stakes wins at his Santa Anita home base through Feb. 27.
Only five years ago the young man from France, who struggled to speak English and used Lawson as an interpreter, was asking Southern California trainers to give him a chance.
It didnāt take long for them to realize his talents. All they had to do was look at the tote board following his victories. In his first start of 2015 (his first full year at Santa Anita), Prat rode a 41-1 shot to a third-place finish. A few days later his first win came at 30-1, and the prices kept coming.
He also had the support of Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella.
"Near every horse he's ridden has outrun its price," Mandella said at the time. "It speaks to any rider's talent. He's phenomenalādirt, turf, short, long. I haven't found anything he doesn't do well. I think he's one of the stars of the future.
"It might not even be far in the future. He might be there now. I wouldn't hesitate to ride him in any race in the world."
The comment was prescient, but those kinds of prices no longer flash up on the tote board on a regular basis. Pratās stature as one of the best riders in the country has afforded him premier mounts, and Santa Anita bettors will not often let his mounts go off at a price. The winning odds of his graded stakes victories this year are 4-5, 2-1, 1-5 and 3-5.
But the 2019 Breedersā Cup was a unique test case for Mandellaās theory from years ago. With quality horses abound, large fields and often imperfect trips, riding talent is extremely important. Lawson got Prat a mount in all 13 Breedersā Cup races at Santa Anita, and once again the rider outran his odds on nearly every one.
The easiest to remember was his wināa stunning 45-1 upset aboard Storm the Court in the Breedersā Cup Juvenileābut he also missed an upset of eventual Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar by a head in the Breedersā Cup Turf, with an even crazier longshot, 51-1 United.
Mix in placings with Donna Veloce (second at 2-1 in the Juvenile Fillies), Bellafina (second at 9-2 in the Filly & Mare Sprint), Blue Chipper (third at 16-1 in the Dirt Mile), Vasilika (second at 9-2 in the Filly & Mare Turf), Whitmore (third at 19-1 in the Sprint), Serengeti Empress (third at 10-1 in the Distaff) and Higher Power (third at 9-1 in the Classic), and Pratās mounts earned more than $3.7 million in purses.
āAll the horses ran well,ā Prat says. āWhen I look back I donāt think I could have done better. I mean, you can always do better, but I gave every horse a chance to win.ā
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A lot more has changed in Pratās life than his on-track performance in those five years. Those around him say he has truly settledāfrom an ambitious, talented and sometimes frustrated young jockey to family man who can let the small things slide off his back.
āQuite interesting, this world that I live in right now with this young man, and Iām more impressed the more I work with him,ā Lawson says. āHe grew up. He became an adult. Heās married and has a kid. Itās not āme, me, meā any more.ā
Much of that can be attributed to his wife, Manon, an exercise rider who followed Prat to California from France, but their daughter, now 15 months old, may have had the most impact.
āIt would be a lot different if I was on my own,ā Prat says. āThe fact that I came to the States with my wife is a big help. It went pretty well when I started riding here, but when everything doesnāt go well, itās good to have support.
āAfter a bad day, I used to get really mad. But now you go home, and you canāt be mad, because your daughter is happy and healthy.ā
Prat also received some crucialāalbeit terrifyingāperspective during his first year of riding in California. In September of 2015 he fractured multiple vertebrae during a spill at Los Alamitos.
āIt was a scary time,ā Lawson remembers. āAll that work could have been extinguished. When I got to the ER, I grabbed his foot to see if he would react. He flinched, and I thought, āOK, good.āā
Prat was in a back brace for nearly two months and returned to racing at the end of December, but the time off, limited to resting and physical therapy, was frustrating.
āIt was hard, because it was the first time I really got hurt and I stopped riding,ā Prat says. āI was in the hospital for a week, and that had never happened before. I realized life can be short and I have to enjoy it. ā¦ Anything I like to do, itās pretty much a physical activity. I wake up every day at 6 to work horses, and then going to the racesāI was in a rhythm and lifestyle, where I was busy every dayāthen all the sudden, nothing.ā
But he channeled that frustration in a positive way, with Lawsonās encouragement, and began to take English lessonsāfour hours a day for six weeks. Now heās one of the most engaging, thoughtful riders in the jockeysā room and particularly doesnāt like when he is misquoted.
āHe wants to be quoted exactly as he said it, because he thinks about what he is saying. Heāll look at the track notes and the newspaper and say, āI didnāt say it that way.ā Iāve had to make a few calls,ā Lawson says with a laugh.
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So, after a Derby win, Breedersā Cup success, and plenty of money rolling in on a regular basis, whatās left for goals?
Plenty.
āThere are so many things to be done,ā Prat says. āI havenāt even done half of what guys like Mike Smith or Frankie Dettori have done. What Iāve done as of right now is pretty much nothing. When you win those big races, you just want to win them again and again. Itās like a drug.ā
Then thereās that Derby thing. Winning was nice, but it didnāt feel like winning totally. He wants to cross the wire first.
His Derby prospects for 2020 are solid, even if this weekās mount in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park aboard Dennisā Moment might be temporary (the coltās regular rider, Irad Ortiz Jr., is in Saudi Arabia to ride Mucho Gusto in the $20 million Saudi Cup). Prat also has Robert B. Lewis Stakes winner Thousand Words, Storm the Court, and an up-and-coming colt named Great Power as potential Derby mounts.
āLast year I gave up Omaha Beach to ride Country House, so Iāll throw something up against the wall and hopefully something will stick,ā Lawson jokes. āOne of the first things he said to me after the Derby was, āWe have to win this race next year, but I want to be in front.āā
Jeremy Balan is an Eclipse Award-winning freelance writer and editor based in Southern California.
Flavien Prat in the Kentucky Derby winner's circle after 65-1 shot Country House was promoted to victory. Coady Photography
Flavien Prat celebrated after 45-1 Storm the Court won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.Eclipse Sportswire/Breeders' Cup
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