Pick Pony Weekly Trainer & Jockey Spotlight — Week of September 21, 2026
Trainer Spotlight
The trainer standings over the past 14 days tell two very different but equally compelling stories. Joel Berndt is the name that jumps off the page first — an eye-popping 52.4% win rate on 11 wins from just 21 starts, with 15 ITM finishes, meaning his horses hit the board on an extraordinary 71% of their outings. When more than half your starters are winning outright, you are not running hot — you are running lights out. Berndt's barn is clearly in peak form, and at those conversion numbers, blindly following him into the windows this week is not a reckless strategy. Right behind him in overall wins is Jamie Ness, who led all trainers with 15 victories from 70 starts, posting a 21.4% win rate and a massive 38 ITM finishes. Ness is a volume operator who stays consistently dangerous, and his ITM percentage speaks to horses that are fit, competitive, and rarely embarrassing. Rounding out the spotlight is Tristan Ashford, whose 8 wins from 32 starts (25.0%) is impressive on its own, but what truly stands out is his remarkably tight ITM number of just 9 — meaning when his horses hit the board, they are almost always winning outright rather than filling place or show tickets. That is the profile of a barn sending horses out sharp and ready.
Jockey Spotlight
In the saddle, the leaderboard belongs to P. Lopez, who posted a remarkable 25 wins from 86 starts over the past two weeks, converting at a 29.1% clip with 47 ITM finishes — the most wins and the most board hits of any rider in the data set. Lopez's volume and consistency are unmatched right now; he is the kind of jockey whose name on a program should immediately catch your attention regardless of the morning-line odds. Hot on his heels is Flavien Prat, who matches Lopez's efficiency almost perfectly — 20 wins from 69 starts at 29.0%, with 38 ITM finishes. Prat has long been one of the sport's elite, and these numbers confirm he is riding with full confidence heading into the week. However, the most electrifying number in the entire jockey column belongs to L.J. Luzzi, who went an astonishing 10 for 25 — a 40.0% win rate — while cashing on 12 of those 25 mounts. That is not a fluke sample size you can dismiss, and bettors who overlook Luzzi's name this week are leaving money on the table. Also worth a close look: A. Mendoza at 35.3% (12 wins / 34 starts) and M. Franco at 31.4% (11 wins / 35 starts), both riding with exceptional efficiency in a competitive jockey colony.
This Week’s Watch List
Three combinations and individuals deserve special attention on your card this week. First: Joel Berndt with any jockey from the top tier — at 52.4% winners, Berndt's barn is the hottest in training right now, and pairing him with an in-form rider like Lopez or Prat could produce automatic underlays worth fading your instincts for. Second: L.J. Luzzi wherever he appears — a 40% win rate over 25 starts is the single most dominant efficiency figure in this entire dataset, and he is almost certainly being underbet as a secondary name behind the Lopez/Prat headlines. Third: the Tristan Ashford and P. Lopez or Flavien Prat combination — Ashford's 25% win rate with a very tight ITM cluster suggests he is placing horses in exactly the right spots to win, and landing either of the top two riders amplifies that edge considerably. Keep these names circled, stay disciplined at the windows, and let the data work for you.