FAIRPLEX : Flores Moves Up to No. 2 on List

David Flores, a little man of few words, doesn’t pretend to understand why he rides so well at Fairplex Park.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I just get the best horses and they take me to the wire.”

Those horses have been taking the 26-year-old native of Tijuana to the wire faster and more often than any other jockey during the last five years at the Los Angeles County Fair, and Thursday he became the second all-time leading rider at the track.

With an opening-day victory aboard Voraz, the heavy favorite in the sixth, a 6 1/2-furlong race, Flores won his 186th race to move past the late Freddie Miller.

He added victories on Charlies Paradise in the $50,000 Bustles and Bows in the 12th and with Simply Snow Chief in the 13th to complete a triple to increase his total to 188 winners.

Now the only rider with more winners is Francisco Mena with 248.

Flores, who started the day only two behind Mena on the all-time list for stakes winners with 32, closed to within one with his victory in the Bustles and Bows, one of three stakes races on the opening-day card.

Breaking from the inside of a five-horse field of 2-year-old fillies going 6 1/2 furlongs, Flores was content to let the speed horses go to the front.

“I needed a little bit of patience because those other horses really went out fast,” Flores said.

Running fourth most of the way, Flores finally got Charlies Paradise in gear nearing the top of the stretch and wore down Shu Biz Annie to win by a half-length.

Despite his big opening day, Flores really wasn’t impressed, especially with his standing on the riding list. “I know that Mena has a lot more than me, but I didn’t know I was already second,” he said.

Flores, who had a share of the riding title in 1989, has won the last four outright.

After missing chances in the fourth and fifth races, Flores thought he had a good chance to win with Voraz, a 3-year-old trained by Caesar Dominguez.

“I thought my horse would go to the front, but he got lazy and didn’t do much early,” Flores said.

Voraz, breaking from the seventh post, was taken wide on the first turn. He was sixth going down the backstretch and started to make his move approaching the far turn.

Voraz started passing tired horses and was fourth entering the stretch, then ran down Silver Paladin to win by a half-length.

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Rotsaluck, ridden by Fernando Valenzuela, was a four-length winner over heavily favored Ocean Indien in the $50,000 Foothill Stakes, one of three stakes on opening day.

Ocean Indien, with Kent Desormeaux aboard, was bumped coming out of the gate. He moved to the rail, trying to make up ground, but instead lost ground by going wide around the first turn.

Rotsaluck, owned by Loyal E. Crownover and trained by Vladmir Cerdin, was never further back than third. He made his move on the far turn and pulled away steadily in the stretch.

Notes

Mongoose First, owned by Tom McEwen and trained by Dennis Givens, won the $10,000 Express Stakes for quarter horses in the third race. Ridden by Guillermo Gutierrez, Mongoose First broke fast from the outside and covered the 350 yards in a hand-time 17.60 seconds. . . . Front-running Persistant Sal and late-running Malibu Light head a field of seven 3-year-old fillies going in the $50,000 Las Ninas Stakes, one of two stakes races scheduled today.