Rosario Out Six Weeks with Fractured Foot

Joel Rosario photo courtesy of Eclipse Sportswire

Jockey agents and trainers on both coasts were left scrambling the morning of Aug. 24 as news broke that jockey Joel Rosario would be sidelined for six weeks with a fractured bone in his left foot.

Agent Ron Anderson confirmed the news, which left Rosario's big contenders for this weekend in New York and California in need of new riders, including Orb in the Aug. 24 Travers and Game On Dude in the TVG Pacific Classic on Aug. 25.

Jockey Jose Lezcano picked up the mount on Orb in the Travers, while Game On Dude was still in need of a new partner in the big Del Mar race.

Rosario took off the remainder of his mounts on the Aug. 23 card at Saratoga Race Course and was hospitalized for x-rays of his left foot after falling from his mount, Casual Elegance, past the wire in the seventh race. The horse did not appear to be injured in the incident.

Motionless on the turf course for several moments, Rosario was finally able to get up and was transported off the track via golf cart after being checked by paramedics. X-rays taken at Saratoga Hospital revealed the injury. On the morning of Aug. 24 Rosario met with Dr. Rick Alfred, an orthopedist with the New York Giants, who confirmed the fracture and fitted the jockey with a cast before he left Alfred's office in Albany.

Lezcano also suffered a leg injury before the running of the $500,000 Ballerina Stakes on Aug. 23, but was cleared to ride Aug. 24. He took over on Rosario's mount, Judy the Beauty, before she flipped in the gate and was a late scratch.

Rosario won the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands with Orb and is the regular rider on the Shug McGaughey trainee. He had several key assignments in stakes races on both coasts over the weekend. In addition to his Travers mount and the Pacific Classic obligation, he was also supposed to ride Goldencents in the Pat O'Brien Stakes and Tigah in the Del Mar Mile Handicap on Aug. 25, and had the call on My Happy Face in the Test Stakes  Forty Tales in the Foxwoods King's Bishop and Somali Lemonade in the Ketel One Ballston Spa at Saratoga on Travers Day. In fact, on Travers Day he was named aboard horses in all 14 races on the card.

With Game On Dude, Rosario was to replace Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith, who elected to ride champion Royal Delta in the Aug. 25 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga instead. Now Smith will get the mount on My Happy Face in the Test, while Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has to find a new jockey for 'the Dude.'

"I have until Sunday to name a rider," Baffert told U-T San Diego via text.

The connections of Goldencents named Patrick Venezuela to ride their sophomore colt in the Pat O'Brien.

Rosario, a 28-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, is leading the nation in wins and total purses with 236 victories and $16,668,665 in overall earnings through Aug. 22. He is second in the Saratoga rider standings with 41 wins.