On his way
Broken back did not stop French jockey’s journey to Derby
to the Kentucky Derby, jockey Flavien Prat has quickly gained a reputation as one of the best riders around.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The single camera was set up on the south side of the jockeys room at Churchill Downs. Three people from NBC were scurrying about, trying to find the right-sized stool, asking that the noise in the room subside and that the volat ume be turned off on the monitor behind them.
Laffit Pincay III, the affable host of most of NBC’s horse racing coverage, was going to interview the three French jockeys riding in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
Julien Leparoux, the veteran at 33 and riding in his 10th Derby, and Florent Geroux, the jokester 30 and riding in his second Derby, both flanked Flavien Prat, who despite his salt-and-pepper hair is the rookie at 24.
“I’m hoping I can get the other two to get Flavien to open up,” Pincay said to a nearby reporter.
What followed early Thurs- day afternoon was 10 minutes of gentle repartee, clothed in camaraderie.
Prat had his fingers intertwined most of the time, his eyes often darting downward. He would have a wisp of a smile as he quietly answered questions.
He saved his biggest smile,
wide and long, for when the interview was over and he was just chatting with his buddies. Welcome to the big time. Prat has quickly gained a reputation as one of the best riders around. He is the seventh-ranked jockey in the country this year. He recently won his second riding title, first at Santa Anita, following a tie with Rafael Bejarano at the 2016 Del Mar meeting.
He will be on the favorite, Paradise Woods, for trainer Richard Mandella, in today’s Kentucky Oaks.
Prat rode in last year’s Oaks, finishing 13th on Mokat in the 14-horse race. Happens to the best of them. Mike Smith finished 14th.
On Saturday, he will be aboard Battle of Midway in his first Kentucky Derby. He has ridden the horse only once before — in a $75,000 optional claiming race.
“We don’t pay much attention to the Derby in Europe,” Prat said. “We pay more attention to the Breeders’ Cup. Once I started riding here, I realized how much the Derby meant, and then last year, I went to Derby Day and I realized how big it is.”
The road to the Derby is long and hard, but it almost always starts the same way: with a kid, a horse and a dream.
Prat grew up around horses because his father was a harness trainer. He even did a little pony racing in France. But racing in Europe is more hierarchical and proper as opposed to the U.S., where there is less structure.
“In France, we have a jockey school,” Prat said. “If you want to be a jockey in America, it’s hard; you have to go to the racetrack. There’s no school like there is in France.”
That early experience seemed to resonate with Prat and has become visible to others.
Jon White, a veteran observer of Southern California racing and the current morning-line oddsmaker at Santa Anita, drew an analogy between Prat and one of game’s legends.
“I see Flavien … as something of a throwback to riders back in the day who often gained valuable experience by working with horses at a farm or a ranch before they became a jockey,” White said.
Prat started riding in France full time, and in 2009, he was the top apprentice. He dropped that status (65 wins) in record time over a two-year period. That’s when things got tough.
In 2012, he ended up as second-call jockey in the prominent stable of Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, billionaire horse owners and breeders who ran Goldikova to three Breeders’ Cup wins. He was behind champion rider Olivier Peslier.
Prat was having a nice career but wasn’t a top-10 jockey because in France you have to wait your turn. Peslier left the stable in late 2014, but Prat didn’t get the promotion. Instead, Maxime Guyon got the top jockey job.
Prat’s first full-time year in in the U.S. in 2015 was going well, but in his 576th mount, on Sept. 17, his gelding Discreetly humorme tripped and fell at Los Alamitos in a maiden race. The horse walked off. Prat did not.
He sustained five fractured vertebrae and a punctured lung. He was hospitalized for five days and was in a body brace for three months.
“It was the first time I broke something that was serious,” Prat said. “It wasn’t a great experience. You just realize that anything can happen and [you] have to enjoy every time, every winner.”
Rather than sit in his Monrovia home and count the hours, Prat signed up for a $2,500 Berlitz English language course in Pasadena.
“I told him I was getting tired of translating for him,” Lawson, who is fluent in French, said with a smile.
It was four weeks, four days a week, 2 1⁄2 hours a day. Prat didn’t miss a class and was never late.
Once the body cast was off, he could be found running the hills by his home. He returned for opening day at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
In 2016, his mounts won more than $12 million. He won 170 races on 933 mounts.
“He has a natural gift that most of the good riders do,” Mandella said, explaining his use of Prat. “But a few of them have an exceptional gift, and he has that.”