SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Flavien Prat has made all the right moves this summer at Saratoga. He leads all jockeys in stakes wins (11), graded stakes wins (7) and purse-money won ($3.7 million) through the first six weeks of the 40-day meet. As the biggest weekend of the summer is close at hand, Prat has had some interesting decisions to make in regards whom to ride in some major races. For example, choosing to ride Sierra Leone in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes and Domestic Product in the Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens may not have been as easy as one might think. Prat, 32, has been aboard Unmatched Wisdom for his three wins from three starts and has been bullish on that horse since he first sat on him. Prat is winless in two starts on Sierra Leone, but he knows the Grade 1 Blue Grass winner is the more accomplished of the pair and is likely to relish the 1 1/4 miles. “Yes, it was hard,” Prat said between races Sunday. “Unmatched Wisdom is undefeated, and I liked him from the get-go. He’s going to go first time at a mile and a quarter. I think Sierra Leone, that’s going to be right up his alley, a distance that he likes.” Prat rode Sierra Leone for the first time in the Belmont Stakes, run at 1 1/4 miles this year, on June 8, finishing third as the favorite behind Dornoch and Mindframe. Trainer Chad Brown had equipped Sierra Leone with a cage bit to hopefully correct his lugging in, but Prat didn’t feel Sierra Leone was really traveling the way he wanted until the quarter pole. :: Gain a competitive edge at Saratoga with DRF's premier handicapping data — purchase our meet packages today and bet with confidence. “Down the backside I never got myself going,” Prat said. “Then I got him in the clear, he never picked it up. He finally made a run by the quarter pole and so I got hung wide and he made a good run, but it was just too late. I definitely wish [the Belmont] was a mile and a half that day.” Brown made another bit change for the Jim Dandy, going to a ring bit, and Prat liked how he traveled in that race, where he finished second to Fierceness but maintained a straight course. With John Velazquez keeping Fierceness in the middle of the track, Prat had little choice but to guide Sierra Leone toward the inside in deep stretch, and that may have been the deeper part of the track that day. Still, Prat was happy with the performance. “When Fierceness runs his race, he’s one of the best 3-year-olds in the country, but he is right there,” Prat said of Sierra Leone. “I really liked the way he went last time. It seems like I know a bit more about him and I think I got to give him a chance.” Irad Ortiz Jr. has picked up the mount on Unmatched Wisdom, also trained by Brown. Prat had a more difficult decision to make on who to ride in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens. He had ridden four horses in their most recent starts – Domestic Product, World Record, Prince of Monaco, and Timberlake – and chose Domestic Product. Prat rode Domestic Product to a 7 1/2-length victory in the four-horse Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes on July 6 at Aqueduct. Prat said he recalled working Domestic Product in Saratoga last year before the horse made his first start and liked him, though the horse would finish fifth on debut. “Last year, before his maiden, I breezed out of the gate and I told [agent Brad Pegram] that horse is a good horse,” Prat said. “He run first time out, he was studdish, he run just okay.” Prat didn’t get to ride Domestic Product again until the Pegasus at Monmouth in June, where he finished a well-beaten second with a not-so-clean trip. In the Dwyer, Prat thought he felt the horse he rode last year. “I thought he was pretty impressive last time, and it seems like he is training well,” Prat said. “I really liked him from the beginning, so I want to give him a chance.” Pegram said the decision in the Jerkens was unique. “Usually, it’s two horses, not four, and it’s all for outfits we ride a lot good horses for,” Pegram said. “And it’s not just four, it’s quite possibly the top four choices.” :: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports straight from the morning workouts at the track. Available every race day. Brown said he did not put any pressure on Prat for the Jerkens and said he let Prat decide which of his two horses he wanted to ride in the Travers. Brown has been one of Prat’s biggest supporters since he moved his tack from California to the East at least for parts of the year three years ago. “He’s very smart, he’s always working on his talents. He studies not only the Form, he’s watching replays, he’s in the gym on his dark days,” Brown said. “He’s aware of different changing track biases when you talk to him in the paddock, and he’s very conscience of the pace of the races.” Prat’s success in New York this summer has him bidding for his first Eclipse Award, an award Ortiz has won five of the last six years. Nationally, through Sunday, Prat leads Ortiz in stakes wins (47-40) and graded stakes wins (33-28) and trails Ortiz by just more than $400,000 in purse money won. Ortiz has won more races (207-140) with 347 more mounts. Prat’s 30 wins at Saratoga trail Ortiz (36) and Tyler Gaffalione (31), but his 11 stakes wins are just four shy of the modern-day record of 15 held by John Velazquez and Joel Rosario. Prat’s confidence is sky-high. “If I don’t feel confident now, I don’t think I’ll ever feel confident,” Prat said. “When you win races it’s a snowball effect. For the last three, four years I feel like I’ve been improving year after year. Hopefully, we can keep improving because there’s a lot to improve.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.