Drayden Van Dyke

Born in Louisville, Ky., home of Churchill Downs, and raised in Hot Springs, Ark., home of Oaklawn Park, Drayden Van Dyke has never strayed far from Thoroughbred racing. 

Van Dyke began his career in Southern California in the fall of 2013. He won his first race aboard Money Clip for owner Glen Hill Farm. Trainer Tom Proctor had taken Van Dyke under his wing, sending him to work with 2-year-old racehorses at Glen Hill Farm in Florida and giving the young rider a space to live in his barn. 

Van Dyke's career took off in 2014 and he was named the leading apprentice jockey in the country in 2014. VanDyke is a regular rider on Glen Hill Farm horses running in California.

Van Dyke recorded his first career graded stakes victory on Sistas Stroll in the 2014 Pucker Up Stakes and his first Grade 1 win on Ring Weekend in the 2015 Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes, which was one of three Grade 1 wins he picked up in 2015, two of which came for trainer Graham Motion. He added a Grade 1 win in 2016 and four in 2017, including a victory on It Tiz Well in the $1 million Cotillion Stakes. 

Van Dyke finished fourth in the 2018 Kentucky Derby with Instilled Regard, and in fall 2018 back at Churchill Downs notched his first Breeder’s Cup win aboard Stormy Liberal in the Turf Sprint. He also finished first in wins and earnings during Del Mar’s competitive summer 2018 meet.

In fall 2023, Van Dyke took a break from riding but returned the next summer at Gulfstream Park, where he became one of the track’s top jockeys. In fall 2024, he won the Princess Rooney Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream aboard Soul of an Angel, and accompanied that mare to his former home track of Del Mar for the PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. The pair broke last in the seven-furlong Filly & Mare Sprint but made up ground through the farm turn and rallied in the stretch to post an upset win, Van Dyke’s second in a World Championships race.