Securing a pair of victories in one afternoon marks a highly productive day for any jockey. Stepping up to three wins represents an outstanding outing, while capturing four is sure to spark intense excitement among spectators and bettors alike.
But what about achieving seven triumphs on a single card? Such an extraordinary winning streak is an incredibly rare phenomenon in horse racing. Throughout Del Mar’s initial 69 years of operation in Southern California, not a single rider was able to exceed six victories in a single day.
That barrier was shattered on September 4, 2006, when Victor Espinoza captured seven wins.
Occurring on Labor Day, the second-to-last day of the track’s summer season, this feat served as the crowning achievement of a spectacular meet for Espinoza. The elite rider had been dominant at Del Mar for weeks, ultimately wrapping up the season with 64 total wins—the highest mark achieved by any jockey there since 1993. In the September 5, 2006, issue of The Los Angeles Times, writer Bob Mieszerski perfectly captured the situation, noting: “Nobody is sorrier to see the end of Del Mar than Victor Espinoza.”
On that historic holiday, it truly appeared as if the jockey possessed a magic touch.
The card kicked off in a victorious, yet relatively standard manner for the man who would later pilot Triple Crown champion American Pharoah and the beloved California Chrome. Partnered with the heavily favored Spot the Diplomat in the I’m Smokin Stakes, Espinoza steered the gelding to a comfortable 2 ¾-length win at prohibitive odds of 1-10.
Thirty minutes later, he guided the 4-5 choice Specific Rule to a dominant, wire-to-wire victory by five lengths in a maiden claiming event. His task in the Windy Sands Handicap required more effort, but Espinoza successfully drove the 2.40-1 second choice Preachinatthebar to a hard-fought 1 ¼-length win at the wire.
With three wins from his first three mounts, Espinoza was on fire, and he maintained this torrid pace in the fourth race on Dream’s. He maneuvered the 3.20-1 contender through a tight spot to launch a winning bid, capturing the allowance optional claiming contest by 1 ¼ lengths.
A maiden special weight event restricted to California-breds followed, where Espinoza rode his wave of confidence to steer the 9-5 second choice Swiss Ski through a crowded field to a decisive 3 ½-length victory. Whether slipping between rivals or surging along the rail, Espinoza made it look effortless as he and Swiss Ski sliced through the pack like a downhill skier negotiating gates.
Five races into the ten-race program, Espinoza was undefeated, and a historic milestone was well within his grasp. He barely had to work for his sixth win of the day, which came aboard the 8-5 favorite Malt Magic in another maiden special weight. The juvenile colt set the pace from start to finish, opening up to win by a staggering 9 ½ lengths as Espinoza sat motionless in the irons.
His perfect streak took a brief pause in the seventh race when Tuff Muffin finished third, missing out on the win by just half a length. However, his focus immediately shifted to the afternoon’s centerpiece: the $250,000 Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante Stakes. In this major event, Espinoza was booked to ride the 8-5 favorite Point Ashley, an exciting young filly trained by Bob Baffert.
The jockey and trainer had previously united for a memorable victory in the 2002 Kentucky Derby with War Emblem, but they were now on the verge of writing a different chapter of racing lore. As the gates crashed open, Espinoza settled Point Ashley into third position, tracking five to six lengths off an incredibly fast pace of :21.25 and :44.17 for the opening fractions.
When Espinoza gave the signal to run, his quest for a seventh daily win rapidly transformed from a hopeful ambition into a concrete achievement. Displaying a powerful turn of foot, Point Ashley swept past her rivals and cruised home to an easy 2 ½-length win.
Never before had a rider collected seven victories on a single afternoon at the seaside track.
“It is simply incredible,” an astonished Espinoza shared in the September 5, 2006 issue of the Owensboro, Ky. Messenger-Inquirer: “This is an afternoon that will stay with me forever.”
For the rider, the accomplishment ranked right up there with a victory in the Run for the Roses.
“At the start of my career, my goals were to win the Kentucky Derby and to achieve a feat like this—sweeping a massive number of races on a single card,” Espinoza added. “To accomplish this at Del Mar, especially in a stakes race of this caliber, makes it incredibly meaningful. The support system around me—including my agent, the trainers who trust me with exceptional mounts, and the local fans—is what makes this moment so extraordinary.”
Since Espinoza’s phenomenal seven-win Labor Day performance, his Del Mar benchmark has been matched once (by Drayden Van Dyke in 2018) but has never been surpassed. This remarkable achievement remains a milestone that may endure for generations.
** This piece was first released in 2019 and has since been revised **
