ARCADIA, Calif. – Four years ago, jockey Flavien Prat missed three months of racing, including the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland, when he was sidelined by a back injury sustained in riding accident. The inactivity left Prat frustrated at the forced change in his life. “Everything I was doing was about sport,” Prat recalled in late October. “I realized that when I broke my back. I couldn’t do anything. It was the worst three months of my life. I’m not into video games or stuff like this.” Prat was riding full time by the end of that year. Since then, his career has been on ascension. He is in the midst of an already remarkable year and can reach new milestones in the Breeders’ Cup races on Friday and Saturday at Santa Anita. :: BREEDERS’ CUP 2019: See DRF’s special section with fields, odds, comments, and more Earlier this year, Prat won his first Kentucky Derby when Country House was promoted from second to first after Maximum Security was disqualified from the win for causing interference. In late June, Prat won the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine for the first time, on One Bad Boy. Prat was the third jockey to win those two races in the same year. Those sporting achievements occurred months after he and his wife, Manon, welcomed their first child, daughter Elena, who will have her first birthday in November. Yes, it’s been a busy year on and off the track for Prat. “It’s been great,” Prat said. Very soon, when young Elena begins walking, Prat can add chasing his daughter around to his list of sporting endeavors. This week, Prat is positioned to have his best Breeders’ Cup in the fourth year of riding the series. Prat won one Breeders’ Cup race in 2016 (Obviously, Turf Sprint) and 2017 (Battle of Midway, Dirt Mile), but was winless with six mounts at Churchill Downs last year. His best result was a third by Anonymity in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. “Last year was a little slow,” he said. The prospects for success are brighter this year. As of last weekend, Prat was expected to ride 13 of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, with good chances in several events. Friday, two of his top mounts are Donna Veloce in the Juvenile Fillies and Hit the Road in the Juvenile Turf. Saturday, his mounts include Vasilika in the Filly and Mare Turf, Higher Power in the Classic, and Bowies Hero in the Mile. “It’s a good list,” he said. “It’s the Breeders’ Cup, and everyone is aiming for that. It’s pretty tough.” A big weekend in a Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita would be fitting for a jockey who has ridden at Santa Anita for nearly a decade. Prat began riding in California in the winter of 2009-10 at Santa Anita, months after his first career victory, which occurred in his native France. With the exception of the 2010-11 winter, Prat rode winters in California and the rest of the year in France through 2014 when he announced he was relocating to California on a full-time basis. In 2014, his final full year in France, Prat ranked 18th in France in wins, with 58 victories. In 2009, his best year in France, he ranked 14th in wins. With the commitment to California came immediate success. His mounts earned more than $5.2 million in 2015, the year he was sidelined for several months. In 2016, Prat’s mounts earned $12.3 million, leaving him ranked 11th in the nation. He held the same ranking in 2017 with earnings of $12.6 million, and cracked the top 10 in 2018 when his mounts earned $12.9 million. This year he has won nearly $15 million, a career best and seventh in the nation. Since the start of 2015, Prat has won or tied for the title of leading rider at nine meetings at Del Mar and Santa Anita and is in contention for the title at the current Santa Anita autumn meeting, which ends Sunday. He won the riding title at the six-month Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that ended in June and at the Del Mar summer meeting. “The main goal is to continue,” he said. “It’s not because it’s a new year and 2020 is coming. We want to keep doing what we’re doing.” Reaching the top of the California standings was a goal. “There are a lot of goals you don’t achieve,” he said. “It was my goal to come here and do better than I was doing in Europe. I didn’t leave Europe to do the same.” Even if other circuits have greater prize money, notably New York and Arkansas, and Kentucky at certain times of the year, Prat plans to stay in California. The thought of relocating crossed his mind last winter, when racing at Santa Anita was halted for three weeks because of a series of equine fatalities, but Prat opted to remain. “I thought about a Plan B,” he said. “We have a house here, and I love the lifestyle.” Prat, 27, is having the sort of season on the track that could result in a nomination for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding rider. Success at Santa Anita this week could aid his chances, even though he is unlikely to catch a coterie of Eastern-based jockey in money earnings. “Money-wise, it’s hard to compete with the East Coast guys,” he said. “We have such a good group of trainers here I don’t see any reason to leave. If you go there, you don’t want to be in the top 10. You want to be in the top 3.” Away from the track, the new family man sneaks off to the golf course once a week. Prat will break 90 now and then. “I’m not as good as I wish,” he said. In the winter, the ski slopes at Big Bear are a short drive from his home near Santa Anita. It seems that if he’s not going fast through the stretch every week on California tracks, Prat is traveling quickly down a mountain. That is about the only thing in his life not on the upswing.