Pat Day Has Good Shot at 8,000th Win Today

Given his dominance of the jockey standings at Churchill Downs, Pat Day is nearly certain to make history today in Louisville, Ky.

The runaway leader at the track’s spring-summer meet with 45 victories and winning at a 34% clip, Day is one win away from becoming the third rider to win 8,000 races. Trying to join Laffit Pincay Jr. and Bill Shoemaker in the exclusive club, Day has seven mounts on Churchill Downs’ 10-race card and none is higher than 9-2 on the morning line.

If he does reach the milestone, it will end a three-day winless streak for Day. He rode only one horse, Traditionally, who ran horribly as the favorite in the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park in New York, on Monday, then Churchill Downs was dark on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Scheduled to be honored in a ceremony by the track when he reaches 8,000, Day will ride Dancin B B in the first, Ididarod Trail in the second, High Cascade for trainer Wayne Lukas in the third, Camden Park in the sixth, Tap Your Feet in the seventh, the comebacking Elite Mercedes in the eighth and Endlessly in the ninth.

Jockey Kent Desormeaux, who has spent the last couple of months riding in Japan, will remain here after returning to ride Astra in the $250,000 Beverly Hills Handicap on June 24 at Hollywood Park.

Desormeaux is planning to work the final three weeks of the Hollywood Park spring-summer meet, then continue on to Del Mar, which begins July 18.

When Desormeaux comes back, his agent will be Tom Knust, the former racing secretary at Santa Anita and Del Mar. Previously, Desormeaux had been represented by Tony Matos, who now books mounts for Gary Stevens and Victor Espinoza.

Ron McAnally has trained two of the four females who have swept the Hawthorne, Milady and Vanity handicaps, Hollywood Park’s three-race series for older fillies and mares.

Successful with Bayakoa in 1989 and Brought To Mind two years later, McAnally won’t have a chance for another sweep this year because Printemps will miss Sunday’s $250,000 Milady Breeders’ Cup Handicap because of soreness in her back.

“It’s nothing serious,” said McAnally of the Chilean-bred, who defeated favored Feverish in the Hawthorne. “She had it before her last race and the race before that [at Santa Anita].