Historic Season Wins Del Cid Delta Downs Riding Title

The 2025-26 Thoroughbred season at Delta Downs wrapped up on Saturday and the leading horsemen awards were handed out during the 11-race program. Jockey Vicente Del Cid won his third overall riding title and his first since the 2023-24 season; Allen Landy captured his second consecutive leading trainer title; and Endzone Athletics, Inc (Karl Broberg and Matt Johanson) won their 14th leading owner crown during the 76-day meeting. Del Cid was on a tear all season long, winning 129 races from 449 mounts (29% wins), which was 76 wins better than second place rider Joel Dominguez who finished with 53 trips to the winner's circle. Even more impressive, Del Cid set a new single-season record with total mount earnings of $3,109,245. He is the first jockey to exceed $3 million in mount earnings since the track opened in 1973. The Guatemala native's first career win came at Delta Downs on October 21, 2021, and he finished second in the voting for the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in 2022. In addition, Del Cid also won the title of leading jockey at Boyd Gaming's Evangeline Downs in 2022 and 2023. Following Del Cid in the jockey standings this season were Joel Dominguez (53 wins), Jansen Melancon (52), Tim Thornton (50), Elio Barrera (32), Thomas Pompell (31), Carlos Perez (30), Kevin Roman (29), Juan Vargas (29), and Julio Ramirez, Jr. (18). Allen Landry won his title by saddling 40 winners from 194 starters, which equaled a win percentage of 26%. His horses finished in the money (top three) 59% of the time. Landry's barn also garnered the most mount earnings this season with a mark of $1,278,535. Rounding out the list of leading trainers for the Delta Downs meeting were Juan Larrosa (43), Jonathan Wong (33), Sam Breaux (31), Brett Brinkman (29), Abel Ramirez-Rodriguez (27), Juan Munoz Cano (19), Isai Gonzalez (18), Ronnie Averett (17), and Chasey Deville Pomier (17). End Zone Athletics, Inc. saw 21 of their runners make it to the winner's circle from 96 starts. That equaled a success rate of 22%. End Zone's barn earned a total of $362,940, which ranked third behind Elite Thoroughbred Racing LLC (Michele Rodriguez) who led all owners with $524,635, and Norman Stables, LLC (Robert A. Norman) who ranked second with $505,135. Rounding out the top owners in terms of wins were Elite Thoroughbred Racing LLC (Michele Rodriguez) (15), Juan Munoz Cano (14), LJ Racing Stables LLC (Juan Larrosa) (12), Norman Stables, LLC (Robert A. Norman) (11), Eric Ramaekers (11), Isai V. Gonzalez (10), Sandy Badeaux (9), Jason Lovern and Pamela Belk Lovern (8), and Les Blake (8). Delta Downs now looks forward to its upcoming American Quarter Horse season which gets underway on April 24 and runs through July 18. The 46-day meeting will feature live racing each Wednesday through Saturday night with first post time set for 6:15 pm Central Time.