Commuting two hours each way on Interstate 65 isn’t much fun, but it should be far simpler than all the traveling Florent Geroux has done in recent months. Geroux, who intends to ride the entire seven-day meet at Kentucky Downs, operated out of Southern California for five hectic weeks, ending Aug. 26, while interrupting his stay at Del Mar with long plane rides to and from racetracks back East. “It was a good decision to ride the summer meet at Del Mar for the first time,” said Geroux’s agent, Doug Bredar, “but boy is it tough, travel-wise, to get in and out of San Diego.” After riding at seven different tracks from June 22 to July 17, Geroux was on hand for the July 22 opener at Del Mar. He proceeded to win seven races – along with a combined 28 seconds and thirds from his 92 mounts – before cutting his meet short. In the meantime, the 36-year-old French native rode July 23 at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, winning the Haskell on Cyberknife, while also returning to Kentucky to ride the Aug. 13 Arlington Million card at Churchill Downs. His Del Mar meet ended Friday with two also-rans before he boarded another red-eye flight to ride the Travers card Saturday at Saratoga. :: DRF's Del Mar headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more “Overall, it was a good experience because we rode for the majority of the top 15-20 trainers in California,” Bredar said. Now back home in Louisville, Geroux is preparing for Kentucky Downs, where in 2015 and 2016 he was the leading jockey at the turf-only Franklin, Ky., track with a then-record 12 wins at both meets. He’ll be a mainstay in a riding colony that will morph into the deepest on the continent by the time the meet ends Sept. 14. Joel Rosario, who last year broke Geroux’s record for wins (17) while also smashing the mark for mount earnings at a single Kentucky Downs meet with more than $2.9 million, will ride the last four dates (Sept. 8, 10, 11, 14), as will the Ortiz brothers, Irad and Jose. They’ll all be joined by an all-star cast to include John Velazquez, Flavien Prat, and the respective one-two all-time winningest jockeys at Kentucky Downs, Brian Hernandez Jr. and Julien Leparoux. Geroux rates as good a chance as anyone to get a head start on the jockeys’ race. “We’ve got quite a few live mounts across the board,” said Bredar, including the ride on Pixelate, the defending champion and likely favorite in the first $1 million race of the meet, the Mint Million on Saturday. Other stakes mounts include Turnerloose in the Dueling Grounds Oaks on Sunday, followed next Saturday by Arklow in the Kentucky Turf Cup and Princess Grace in the Ladies’ Turf. Pixelate, a 2 1/2-length winner for Godolphin and trainer Mike Stidham in the 2021 Mint Million, was among seven or eight older horses expected when Saturday entries were drawn Monday. Others confirmed were Cavalry Charge, Gray’s Fable, and Injunction.