Flavien Prat invaded Ellis Park on Saturday and came away with Grade 1 and Grade 2 stakes wins and the honor of Jockey of the Week for June 26 through July 2 by the panel of racing experts. The award recognizes jockeys for riding accomplishments and who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1,050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.
While usually riding in New York at Belmont Park, Prat travelled to Kentucky for the penultimate day of the Churchill Downs meet at Ellis Park which featured six stakes races.
The Greg Foley-trained Stitched with Prat in the irons, went off at odds of 46-1, the second longest shot in the field 10 in the G2 Wise Dan. Racing in fourth and four-wide through the second turn, Stitched had his sights set on the leader Get Smokin. Stitched caught Get Smokin in the final sixteenth to post a neck win in 1:40.97 for the 1 1/16 miles on the turf rated as good. Prat picked up the mount on Stitched when Marcelino Pedroza, Jr. was unavailable to ride.
“I'm really grateful I got the mount,” said Prat. “He broke well from the gate and was able to be in a good position when we needed to make a move. He gave me a chance to get into the race and he did things from there.”
Brad Cox gave a leg up to Prat in the feature race of the day, the Grade 1, $1 million Stephen Foster aboard West Will Power. Off as the 2-1 favorite in the field of eight, West Will Power broke sharply from post position six and sat a perfect stalking trip in second. He grabbed the lead on the far turn and held off the fast closing Rattle N Roll to win by a half length in 1:47.93 for nine furlongs on the main track.
The Stephen Foster was the third win of the day for Prat.
“He was cruising all the way around there,” Prat said. “He just carried me home to the wire down the stretch. I was really impressed by the way he won this winter at Fair Grounds in the New Orleans Classic (G2). It was a different setup last time out in the Alysheba (G2). He came back here to Ellis and the race shape was much more to his style.”
Prat outpolled Javier Castellano who won two stakes races including the G2 John A. Nerud, Emisael Jaramillo who won the G2 Smile Sprint, Sheldon Russell who won all three stakes races at Laurel, and Luis Saez with three stakes wins.
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