How Drayden Van Dyke Became the Comeback Kid

About a year before Drayden Van Dyke won the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint aboard Soul of An Angel (Atreides), no one would have thought he was about to win any sort of major race. His career in shambles, he went 5-for-136 in 2023, and he knew it would not be easy to bounce back.

But the story changed.

It's now about perseverance. Van Dyke is in Florida, getting ready for the Championship Meet at Gulfstream. His mental health has improved dramatically and, most importantly he is winning races again, including a Breeders' Cup race.

“It felt amazing winning that race,” he said. “It was relieving, It was great to do it at Del Mar. I only had the one mount but I was able to prove a lot of people wrong. I showed people I still got it. I felt blessed and thankful.”

When Van Dyke first came around, he looked like the type that would settle into the California jockey colony and be a major force for years to come. He won 182 races in 2014 and won an Eclipse Award as the sport's leading apprentice. In 2018, he was the leading rider at both the Del Mar summer meet and the Del Mar Bing Crosby meet. On one occasion, he won seven races in one day.

“I thought I'd be in the top five, if not the leading rider for while,” he said. “I thought this is my time now. I showed everyone that I could win a meet and that I could win seven races in one day. I was winning countless stakes that summer and winning Grade Is left and right. I had proven to people that I can perform on the big stage in high-pressure situations. I never got flustered.  I was always determined. I never thought I could get as low as I did.”

Then it all started to slip away. He won just 46 races in 2022, which proceeded an abysmal 2023.

“What happened? I really don't have an answer to that,” he said. “It's just so competitive in California and there is a lack of opportunity there. If you're not riding for the right people, it's a struggle for a lot of the guys. I was riding first call, basically, for Baffert. That stopped. Then I lost my agent, Brad Pegram. With those two things happening all at the same time. I just kind of lost my business. I don't blame anybody but myself. I put it all on myself. It could have been my attitude. It could have been a whole lot of different things. I was burnt out more than anything and I wasn't getting the opportunities that I was used to getting. I was depressed and I was trying to figure out that question, how come no one is using me anymore?”

He was determined to become a top rider again, which could only happen if he got to a better place when it came grips with his problems, which included the death of his father in 2014. Seth Van Dyke committed suicide.

In October of 2023, he walked away, and did not ride for over three months.

“It got to the point where I had to step away from the sport,” Van Dyke said. “I needed to get a handle on the things that were bothering me inside. My mind was frazzled. I couldn't think straight. I was always angry and I was not enjoying riding horses anymore. I knew I needed to get away from this for a while and just lead a normal life.”

Looking back, he knows how much that sabbatical helped him. He emerged with a new attitude and the type of positive outlook he had not had for years.

“I needed to get away and get my mind right and my body right and face my demons,” said the 30-year-old jockey. “I have always been a spiritual person. I grew up as a Christian and my father was very much into the spirituality of God. I really got in tune with my religion while I was away. Follow God's guidelines, how you're supposed to treat people, how you're supposed to live. It keeps you at peace. When you're at peace with yourself you handle your problems way better than if you're not.”

The time off worked, but only to the extent that Van Dyke had a better attitude. As for his riding career, he was right back where he started–at the bottom. He began riding again in January at Santa Anita and promptly lost 38 straight races.

“I was coming out in the mornings and working hard and still no opportunities came,” he said. “I was scratching my head. What do I need to do to prove myself to these people? I didn't get it. But that's the business of horse racing. When people want to use you, they will use you. If they don't want to use you they won't use you, no matter who you are.”

Then the story changed again. Trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr., who dominates in Florida, was using Edgard Zayas as his top rider but was running so many horses that he need a second stable jockey. He knew of Van Dyke, but had never met him. For some reason, though, he kept thinking about him.

“I called his agent, Ryan Cosaco, and asked what are you going to do with Drayden?,” Joseph said. “He told me he had no business. I told him in that case, here's a proposal–come to Gulfstream for a month and if it works out, stay. If it doesn't, go back and no one will know that you were gone. I told him that if he had any business at all, don't come.”

He came.

Van Dyke rode his first Gulfstream race on June 7 and wasted no time showing everyone that he could still ride. He won with five of his first nine mounts. Now riding for other trainers in addition to Joseph, he's had, through Nov. 13, 15 wins at the current Gulfstream meet. That includes a victory aboard Soul of an Angel in the GIII Princess Rooney S. Van Dyke worried that Joseph would choose a more high-profile rider for the Breeders' Cup assignment, but Joseph stood by Van Dyke.

“I was just super happy for Saffie and his whole team,” Van Dyke said. “After what he's done for me, riding his first Breeders' Cup winner meant the world to me,” Van Dyke said. “I just wanted to win for him so bad.”

Things will get tougher when the New York and Kentucky riders converge on Gulfstream for the Championship Meet, but Van Dyke has no plans to go anywhere. He's put his tumultuous time in California in his past and is happy to be riding and winning races in Florida.

“I'm really happy with the way things have gone for me in Florida,” Van Dyke said. “For the time being, California is not on my radar. I'm following my gut and I've come to believe that your gut feeling is when God is talking to you and telling you what you should be doing. My gut tells me to stay in Florida.”