ARCADIA — Flavien Prat’s only rough trip on Memorial Day happened before America’s champion jockey got to Santa Anita for an afternoon of historic horse races.
Prat’s flight from New York, where he’s winning at a high percentage at Aqueduct, departed 3-1/2 hours late because of mechanical problems. By the time he got to Santa Anita, he had missed his first scheduled mount, which won an allowance-level race with Joel Rosario filling in. He barely made it in time for the Hollywood Gold Cup.
“It was a very long trip,” Prat said. “I’m just glad to be here.”
On the track, it was all smooth travels.
In the 86th running of the Grade II, $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, Prat sent Forged Steel to the early lead and the Florida-based 4-year-old did the rest, pulling away to a 9-1/2-length romp as favorite Malarchuk held on for second and Santa Anita Handicap winner British Isles finished fourth.
An hour and a half after that, in the Grade I, $300,000 Shoemaker Mile, Prat swung Formidable Man off the turf-course rail and rallied the 5-year-old to a 1-1/4-length victory while Almendares took second in a blanket finish with King of Gosford and Seal Team.
The other Grade I race, the $300,000 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares on grass, 4-year-old Thought Process and jockey Hector Berrios took control from front-runner Rashmi at the top of the stretch and went on to a 2-3/4-length win.
Those were popular results with the holiday crowd. Forged Steel, favored early in the betting, went off as a close third choice in the field of five and paid $8.20. Formidable Man was odds-on and paid $3.40. Thought Process was the public choice and paid $4.80.
The card was billed as the finale of “Gold Cup Weekend.” The Gold Cup itself wasn’t actually the strongest of Monday’s graded stakes, and it was a shadow of what it was in the old days at Hollywood Park, where winners included a long list of immortals starting with Seabiscuit. But it’s hard to knock the performance by Forged Steel, a gray son of Vekoma.
Sent west after a win at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas by trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who’d won the 2025 Gold Cup with Skippylongstocking, Forged Steel was clocked in 2:01.58 for his first try at 1-1/4 miles and his first triumph at the stakes level. That’s the fastest Gold Cup since Accelerate’s 2:01.38 in 2018. Accelerate went on to win that season’s Breeders’ Cup Classic and North American Horse of the Year title.
“He check-marked that he can run a mile and a quarter,” Prat, the 33-year-old Frenchman, said of Forged Steel. “I think Saffie is going to have a lot of options (for future races).”
If Forged Steel flashed potential, Formidable Man lived up to his already-impressive resume.
The Michael McCarthy-trained horse now is a Grade I winner at ages 3 (in the Hollywood Derby at Del Mar), 4 (in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita) and 5. He was racing for the first time since he finished second to Notable Speech in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar last November.
“He’s such a genuine racehorse,” McCarthy said. “If he was ever going to be vulnerable, it was going to be today. But he’s been touting himself (in training) the last couple of weeks.”
As it turned out, the closest thing to a problem for McCarthy and Formidable Man was concern that Prat wouldn’t get to Santa Anita in time. Prat hadn’t ridden Formidable Man since the horse’s maiden victory at Del Mar in 2023.
“I heard he wasn’t going to get here at one point,” said McCarthy, who was getting phone messages from other jockeys’ agents, hoping to replace Prat. “I started getting a little worried. I was certainly happy to see that he was here.”
SHORTENING UP
• Jockey Juan Hernandez recorded his 3,000th win by riding Syntax to a front-running victory in the ninth race Sunday. Hernandez, 34, a native of Veracruz, Mexico, has been a leader on the Southern California circuit since he moved from Northern California in 2020. He’s one of six current Santa Anita jockeys with 3,000 or more wins, following Kent Desormeaux (6,196), Mike Smith, Joel Rosario, Victor Espinoza and Tyler Baze.
• Armando Ayuso won races with Novinophobia ($21.40) and The GM ($13.40) to retake the lead from Antonio Fresu, 20-19, in the Santa Anita jockey standings with three weeks left in the Hollywood Meet.
• Thought Process’ first Grade I victory was trainer Phil D’Amato’s 13th at the meet, giving him a five-win lead over John Sadler, Mark Glatt and Jeff Mullins.