Jockey Dylan Davis has quite a few reasons to look forward to the future.
He's hopeful of sustaining his summertime momentum into the Belmont at the Big A fall meet that starts Sept. 13. Maybe there's a Breeders' Cup mount or two or three down the road.
Also, beginning Jan. 1, he'll be sponsored by Barstool Sports and will wear the company's logo on his pants during races.
Life is good for the 29-year-old Davis.
Especially after a breakthrough meet at Saratoga Race Course.
In recent years, Davis, a New York mainstay, had finished the Fab 40 days at the Spa toward the bottom of the top 10 in the riders' standings. Yet this summer, everything fell into place perfectly for the son of former rider Robbie Davis.
Enjoying his best stay to date at the Spa, Davis finished in a tie with Tyler Gaffalione for third at the meet with 36 wins. Only Irad Ortiz Jr. (52) and Flavien Prat (45) finished ahead of them, and those two meet leaders are the favorites to win the Eclipse Award as the nation's outstanding jockey.
Drilling down in the standings, Davis finished ahead of Hall of Famers Joel Rosario, Javier Castellano, and John Velazquez at a meet which attracts the best jockey colony of the year across the country.
"It was really an incredible meet. I've got to thank Mike Migliore, my agent. We've put in a lot of hard work staying on the (New York Racing Association) circuit this year and it's nice to see this success," said Davis, who plans to ride in New York this winter except for some weekend travel to ride his top horses. "My goal was to top my career best of 19 wins at the meet and we went way beyond that. Getting a grade 1 win at Saratoga was also incredible, and I hope the success continues into the future and leads to me getting better horses."
A year ago, Davis set a new personal mark for Saratoga victories with 19, winning with 10% of his 185 mounts and earning $2.1 million. His elevator ride to the penthouse this summer saw him boost his winning percentage to 17% (36 of 214) with $3.5 million in earnings.
"To be tied for third, the kid put on an incredible show. I am still speechless from it and I am never at a loss for words," Migliore said. "He did everything really well. Everything fell into place. He was constantly in the right place at the right time."
Helping his cause was that Davis was able to ride—and win—for some of the meet's top trainers such as Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher, Christophe Clement, Mark Casse, Saffie Joseph Jr., and Tom Amoss. He won seven races for Ray Handel.
"When you're doing good, the phone rings. People want you," Migliore said.
Riding for high-caliber barns, Davis was able to notch three graded stakes wins at the meet, including his initial grade 1 score at the Spa.
That breakthrough win came on West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey's Carson's Run in the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) for Clement. It was Davis' third career grade 1 win, all of them for Clement as he previously won last year's Summer Stakes (G1T) with Carson's Run and the 2021 E. P. Taylor Stakes (G1T) with Mutamakina, both at Woodbine.
"The quality of horses I have been riding has improved every year. But at Saratoga this year it jumped to another level," Davis said. "So, I am very, very happy for that, and I can't thank everyone enough for their support."
Aside from top trainers, Davis has also caught the eye of Barstool Sports founder and owner Dave Portnoy, whose company has a sponsorship deal with him in place for next year.
"I bet a lot on New York races, especially Saratoga, and maybe two years ago I started betting on everything Dylan rides. I liked the way he was riding all his horses. He was putting horses in the right position," said Portnoy, a gambling enthusiast who also owns several horses including the unraced 2-year-old Gun Runner filly Wondergirl Carly, who he bought for $650,000 at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale. "Before the meet I tweeted out it was going to be the 'Summer of Dylan Davis' at Saratoga and it was. It picked up steam as the meet went on."
Davis turned a flat bet profit on his mounts at the Spa, a lucrative stat that did not go unnoticed by a heavy gambler like Portnoy.
"I'm a horse bettor at heart and there are times when you feel you had the best horse and he didn't get a good ride," he said. "But I never feel that way with Dylan. If the horse doesn't perform it's not because he didn't put him in the right position. Time and time again, he put his horses in spectacular position."
Migliore noted the importance of adding financial and social media support to a rider trying to bust out like Davis.
"Getting someone like Dave to tout Dylan is incredible," Migliore said. "He's huge."
Aside from his family tree, which includes his dad Robbie, a winner of 3,382 races, and his sisters Katie and Jacqueline, who also rode at the Spa, Davis has the pedigree for success in New York. He started riding in 2012 and has 1,400 wins with earnings of $84.5 million. In 2018, he tied a NYRA record with a six-win day at Aqueduct Racetrack. He was the leading NYRA rider in 2022 with 186 wins and was tied for fourth with 22 wins earlier this year at the Belmont at the Big A spring meet.
There's a major difference, however, between any other NYRA meet and Saratoga, but it didn't it didn't take long for Davis to serve notice that he would be a force at the Spa. On opening day, he guided The Queens M G to victory in the Schuylerville Stakes—at odds of 44-1, no less.
"Opening day was an indicator of what was to come," Davis said.
He later won the Adirondack Stakes (G3) with the daughter of Thousand Words and kept on rolling.
He spent the break between the Spa and the Big A riding at Kentucky Downs and recorded a pair of thirds in $1 million stakes.
On Friday, he'll be back in New York at the Big A, trying to stay on the winning track and land some Breeders' Cup mounts, all thanks to a sensational stay at Saratoga that had one very slight drawback.
"Boy, was it a great Saratoga meet," Migliore said. "But how are we going to top that next year?"
