Record day for Leparoux

Jockey Julien Leparoux, familiar to Southern California racing fans, made history at Churchill Downs today. Here are highlights of the news release from Louisville:

Leparoux rode seven winners on the Veterans Day card Tuesday at Churchill Downs to match the single-day record of Hall of Famer Pat Day, who initially set the mark on June 20, 1984.

Leparoux, a 25-year-old native of Senlis, France, also rode six winners from nine mounts at Churchill Downs on June 27, 2007.

Leparoux, who has won three riding titles at Churchill Downs and holds a commanding lead during the 26-day meet that concludes Nov. 29, won on the first seven mounts of his nine rides on the card.

Leparoux's winning mounts were Diva's Gold ($6.40) in the first, Yikes ($7.80) in the second, Troutdale ($8.40) in the third, Gerivello ($10.40) in the fourth, Variant ($11) in the fifth, Majestic Feline ($4.40) in the seventh and Runway West ($12) in the eighth.

"I got a little lucky picking up the one mount for Calvin (Borel)," said Leparoux, who took over for Borel on Troutdale because Borel's mother died Monday night and the rider took off his mounts. "I really wanted to win it for Calvin.

"This was just my lucky day."

Leparoux, who now has 285 career victories at Churchill Downs where he first rode in the 2005 Fall Meet, finished eighth aboard Rocketinthegate, an 8-1 shot, in the ninth race and came home second aboard 3-1 second choice Sinister in the 10th.

At the conclusion of Tuesday's card, Leparoux had a 31-19 lead over Robby Albarado in the jockey standings.

In the featured $48,000 Veteran's Day Purse, Gulf Coast Farms' Distorted Passion rallied from off the pace under Shaun Bridgmohan to score a 2 ½-length victory over Silent Street.

Distorted Passion, a 3-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Distorted Humor, covered the seven furlongs over a fast track in 1:23.87 in winning for the second time in 10 career starts.

Distorted Passion returned mutuels of $5.80, $3.60 and $2.60 as the favorite in the field of nine. Silent Street, ridden by E.T. Baird, paid $4 and $3, while Sheltered, ridden by Robby Albarado, returned $3.60 to show.