DEL MAR : Flores Is Back, His Top Mounts Aren’t

DEL MAR —  David Flores spent the better part of the last month in Rosarito, a sleepy, seaside town south of Tijuana.

It was an odd place for one of the leading jockeys in Southern California to be during the Del Mar meeting, but Flores wasn’t there by choice.

He was there making the best of a bad situation.

On July 29, the day after he became Del Mar’s first triple winner this season, two Border Patrol agents appeared in front of Flores’ locker in the jockey room and arrested the Tijuana native for working in the country illegally.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service informed Flores that his best option would be to go home and reapply for the visa he thought he already had.

He followed that advice and now calls his furlough a “vacation.”

“I tried to make it a vacation because I didn’t want to think about what was happening,” Flores said. “I spent most of the time going to la playa (the beach) . “

On Sunday, a day short of four weeks after he was apprehended, Flores, with an H-1 visa in hand, returned to la pista (the track) .

In two days of racing, Flores has ridden eight mounts and twice finished third.

But Flores isn’t talking about the mounts he is getting. The topic of conversation seems to be those he is not getting.

Gone are his top money earners, such as Marquetry, who is scheduled to start the $500,000-added Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park on Sept. 1. Gary Stevens will be aboard Marquetry for that one.

“In this business, one man’s misfortune is another man’s gain,” said Bill Barisoff, Flores’ agent. “We’ve lost so much money already. It seems all the horses David would have ridden in stakes races at Del Mar won. I stopped keeping track.”

Flores remains optimistic that he will regain the horses.

“I’m going to try hard,” he said. “And I hope to God I can get some horses back.”

No official records are kept, but the 10 claims put in for Rearrange, winner of Monday’s first race, is believed to be a track high, according to Mac McBride, a Del Mar spokesman.

Trainer Bill Spawr won the shake and claimed the filly by Jadar and Directa for $16,000.