Jockey Dylan Davis is usually riding at Belmont Park at this time of year but he travelled to Woodbine outside Toronto, Canada and came home with his first career Grade 1 victory. The win earned Jockey of the Week honors for Davis. The honor, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys.
Riding for trainer Christophe Clement, Davis was aboard Mutamakina (GB) in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes, a 1-1/4 mile turf test for fillies and mares three-years-old and up and part of the Ladies of the Lawn series. Davis was riding Mutamakina (GB) for the third time including a win in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly in August, the second leg of the Ladies of the Lawn series. Despite the gutsy win in her last start, Mutamakina (GB) went off as the 8-1 sixth choice in the field of 10.
Mutamakina (GB) stalked a slow pace on the yielding turf, and sat off the leader, Kalifornia Queen. Those two battled for the lead into the stretch with Mutamakina (GB) taking the lead at the sixteenth pole, holding off stablemate, La Dragontea (GB) to win by a neck in 2:09.14. Kalifornia Queen finished third.
“She ran well here about a month ago,” Davis recalled. “We saw an opportunity to bring her up. Christophe did a great job getting her here. I've been breezing her, setting her up for this race. We knew she would be tough coming here.”
Davis, 27, the son of retired jockey Robbie Davis, has been riding since 2012. He tied a NYRA record with a six-win day on Feb. 18, 2018 at Aqueduct finishing in-the-money in all nine of his mounts that day. His sisters, Jacqueline and Katie are also jockeys. He currently sits in 4th place of the Belmont Park standings with 19 wins and nearly $1.4 million in purses.
Davis' weekly statistics were 22-4-2-0 and $449,894 in total purses.
Other nominees for Jockey of the Week included Tyler Gaffalione with 12 wins during the week, Juan J. Hernandez who won two stakes races at Santa Anita, Flavien Prat who won the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth Challenge and Evin Roman who also won 12 races during the week.
The Jockey of the Week panel would also like to recognize the remarkable achievement of Arnaldo Bocachica on Oct. 9 when he set a single card Charles Town record of eight stakes wins during the West Virginia Breeders' Classic card. Bocachica now sits in a 10-way tie for second for most jockey victories in a single day.
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