ARCADIA, Calif. – At the height of summer racing in Southern California, jockey Kyle Frey called timeout on his 2023 season in late July. Frey needed a break, mentally exhausted after dealing with months of self-imposed pressure to succeed. While his fellow jockeys competed for the best prize money of the year through August and early September at Del Mar, Frey stayed away, waiting until late September to return at the much quieter Los Alamitos September meeting. A month later, Frey is riding full-time at Santa Anita, and had his best weekend of the six-week season, winning twice. Through Sunday, Frey had four wins at Santa Anita, good enough to tie for eighth in the overall standings. :: Get ready for Santa Anita racing with DRF PPs, Clocker Reports, Picks, and more. Shop Now.  The highlight of the season so far was a win by 10 1/2 lengths on the exciting juvenile colt Nysos in a six-furlong maiden race on Saturday for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. A first-time starter, Nysos was timed in 1:08.97, and earned a hefty Beyer Speed Figure of 96. For Frey, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2011, it felt like a speed figure of 1,000,000. “Whether I get to ride him back or not, it was a blessing,” he said on Sunday. “I’m grateful for the chance.” In a late September interview, Frey said the pressure to win prevented him from enjoying race-riding. Frey wavered on leaving racing briefly earlier in the summer, and consulted with his agent, Jack Carava, before making the decision. “I was debating that maybe I should take a break and freshen up,” he said. “We were taking it week by week. Some weeks we’d get a win and it would be all right. I’d kind of feel good. The next week I’d have a bad week and boom right back in that depressive slump, so to speak.” The 31-year-old Frey was the champion apprentice of 2011, and has won 1,120 career races. He won three consecutive riding titles at Golden Gate Fields in 2020 and 2021 before relocating to Southern California in the summer of 2021. At the 2021 Del Mar summer season, Frey finished tied for seventh in the standings with 14 wins. At the six-month Santa Anita meeting earlier this year, Frey had 27 wins, and ranked toward the bottom of the top 10. “Coming in and doing well at Del Mar two years ago, I set a high bar and expectations,” he said. “In my mind, I put success first and everything else would fall into place if I could get that horse or get those wins or get to that plateau of success. The reality is you could be miserable in a mansion or miserable in a trailer park. “It’s an internal thing.” During his break in August, Frey kept fit physically, but also worked through personal issues, including a tax delinquency. “That will be a long road,” he said. Frey has dealt with substance abuse issues in the past, but said he did not suffer any sort of relapse in that regard during the summer. A break in late summer allowed him to spend personal time with his wife and two young children, while addressing career goals, he said. “I was losing direction on myself and what I should be prioritizing,” he said. “Overall, getting my head right was key. “I had to be kind to myself.” By mid-September, Frey was eager to return. “I was going to wait another month, but I had the itch,” Frey said. “If you really want to do something, you really want to do that. I’m good now.” Nysos was Frey’s second career mount for Baffert. “The thing about Kyle is that he’s really good out of the gate,” Baffert said on Sunday. Nysos is likely to be in stakes later this fall. While Frey hopes to retain the mount, he is still rebuilding business lost from late summer. On Friday at Santa Anita, Frey is booked to ride four of the nine races. There may be a quiet period for rides during Breeders’ Cup weekend in early November, but Frey is hoping that some momentum earned this month will carry into the Del Mar autumn meeting that begins on Nov. 10. Similar to so many of his colleagues in the jockeys’ room, Frey just wants the chance. “I have no expectations,” he said. “I want to do the best I can with what I’m equipped with. When I have a good shot, they’re 1, 2, or 3.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.