Maragh Back to Racing at Aqueduct

After a 2015 spill kept him away from racing for nearly 16 months, jockey Rajiv Maragh is set to make his long-awaited return Nov. 4, opening day of the Aqueduct Racetrack fall meet.

The 31-year-old Jamaica native is named to ride the Bobby Ribaudo-trained Questeq in the sixth race, a 2-year-old maiden event for New York-breds on the turf. It will be his first mount since suffering several broken vertebrae, a broken rib, and a punctured lung in a racing accident July 10, 2015 at Belmont Park.

"It's really exciting to be back," said Maragh, who is again represented by his longtime agent, Tony Micallef. "I got over a big hump. It was a long process to get healthy. I'm very fortunate to get to ride again. I went through a tough stint with the injury, and rehabilitation and everything. It's been a long journey. I don't know if it's exactly struck me yet that I'm really going to be riding. It's still kind of unreal."

Maragh was barely two months into one comeback when that fateful July race necessitated another. The fall before, Maragh was unseated in the 2014 Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. I), when Wicked Strong   clipped heels, requiring seven months to recover from a broken arm.

"It's been a roller coaster the last few years—lots of ups and downs," he said. "I would say this would be the lowest point in my career—to be so severely injured, and it was such a tough task to get back to riding again. And now that I'm back to riding, it feels like I'm starting from scratch, business-wise. All the horses I was riding are pretty much retired, so I have to start over and I'm competing with the best jockeys in the world.

"Obviously I'm kind of at a disadvantage, because I don't have any horses I've been riding. I've got to hit the reset button and start back over."

Maragh, who has won 1,673 races since taking out his jockey's license in 2003, has been a common sight lately on the Belmont backside and, since renewing his license earlier this month, on the back of a horse as well.

"Now that it's been a few weeks since I've been working horses, it's been a nice, steady progression for me," Maragh said. "In the beginning, it was tough—muscle-wise, strength-wise. I didn't feel athletic at all. That was a bit of a downer, when you're used to being on a horse and feeling physically strong and athletic. Fortunately, in the last couple of weeks, it's been progressing to where now I'm very confident. I'm a lot stronger. Things are a lot smoother for me. I feel like now I've gotten to where I need to be."