Flavien Prat

Flavien Prat is the son of a trainer. He has ridden in places like Germany, Italy, and his native France as well as the United States.

In 2009, Prat began riding periodically during the winter in Southern California before returning home shortly thereafter. Prat's first full season in North America was 2015, and he finished second in the standings of the Del Mar summer meet. At Del Mar, Prat earned his first Grade 1 win in the United States aboard Wild Dude in the Bing Crosby Stakes and also recorded the first four-win day of his career on Sept. 4.

Prat's first graded stakes victory came aboard Catch a Flight in the Grade 3 Precisionist Stakes at Santa Anita Park on May 2, 2015. He earned his first Breeders' Cup win in 2016 when he guided Obviously to victory in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint and also recorded a pair of third-place finishes from  eight Breeders' Cup starters in 2016.

In 2017, Prat picked up multiple Grade 1 wins with Paradise Woods and Moonshine Memories and also won Grade 1s with Avenge and Ransom the Moon leading up to the Breeders' Cup. On Breeders' Cup Friday, Prat secured his second victory at the World Championships when he guided Battle of Midway to a win in the Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

Prat was the regular rider of multiple Grade 1 winner Bellafina, who finished fifth as the favorite in the Longines Kentucky Oaks contender Bellafina. While Bellafina did not live up to expectations in the Oaks, Prat landed an even bigger prize the following day when Country House won the 2019 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve via the disqualification of Maximum Security.

Country House's Derby win was Prat's first win in any Triple Crown race. His best previous finish was third in the 2017 Kentucky Derby with Battle of Midway. He finished third again in the 2021 Derby, riding Hot Rod Charlie.

In fall 2019 Prat achieved the remarkable feat of securing a mount in each of the 14 Breeders' Cup races. On Future Stars Friday he finished second as the favorite aboard Donna Veloce in the Juvenile Fillies and two races later he won his third career Breeders' Cup race when Storm the Court upset the Juvenile at odds of 45-1.

On May 15, 2021, Prat won the Preakness Stakes for the first time, winning on 11-1 shot Rombauer for trainer Michael McCarthy. It marked Prat's first Triple Crown race win since Country House's victory in the 2019 Kentucky Derby. 

Prat has enjoyed great success at Del Mar. He's won the riding title at the summer meet outright in 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021, and tied for the title with Rafael Bejarano in 2016. Prat raced primarily on the East Coast in 2023.

During 2022-23, Prat gained international recognition as the jockey for unbeaten Flightline. That colt won all six of his career races by overwhelming margins, culminating in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland, and set some of the fastest speed figures of any racehorse in North America during the 21^st century. In 2023, Prat returned to the winner's circle at the Breeders' Cup when he won the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf with Hard to Justify.

The 2024 racing season turned out to be Prat’s career peak to date. He set the record at Saratoga for graded stakes wins with 13, and entered the Breeders’ Cup with 71 stakes wins overall, eight shy of Irad Ortiz Jr.’s record in North America of 79 set in 2022. On Breeders’ Cup Saturday, Prat won back-to-back Grade 1s on Sierra Leone in the Longines Classic (his second win in that race) and Moira in the Maker’s Mark Filly & Mare Turf.

Five weeks after his success at the Breeders’ Cup, Prat broke Irad Ortiz Jr.’s record of 79 stakes wins in a single season when he won two graded events at Aqueduct on Dec. 7, giving him 80. He did not stop at that milestone, however. Less than three weeks later, Prat set a new North American record of 56 graded stakes wins when he guided King of Gosford to victory in the Mathis Mile Stakes Dec. 26 at Santa Anita, breaking Jerry Bailey’s mark of 55.

After a record-setting year, Prat was honored with his first Eclipse Award as Outstanding Jockey.