Rosario Readies for Return to Riding

Jockey Joel Rosario is expected to resume riding around the weekend of Oct. 12-13 at Belmont Park, agent Ron Anderson said Sept. 24.

The 28-year-old reinsman has been sidelined with a foot injury since being dropped from his mount Aug. 23 at Saratoga Race Course.

Rosario, who has been under the treatment of Dr. Rick Alfred—an orthopedist and team physician for the New York Giants—will remain in a boot cast for one more week and then will undergo a final exam of his fractured left foot.

"The x-rays are good, he's not in any pain at all, it all looked good," Anderson said. "He's been keeping himself fit and we're going to shoot for that weekend."

Rosario, who ranked first in the nation by earnings and wins at the time of his injury, is currently third on the national leaderboard with $16,713,440 and 237 wins for the year. Among those were the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) aboard Orb and the Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) on Animal Kingdom.

Earlier in the month, Anderson said Rosario was on course for an October comeback. The agent said he can't project how Rosario's business will come back together heading into the Nov. 1-2 Breeders' Cup World Championships. Rosario will miss stakes action on both "Super Saturday" at Belmont and the opening weekends of Keeneland and Santa Anita Park.

"Until the dust settles from these two weekends and we see how these horses run and he starts riding again, I'm not going to know a whole lot," the agent remarked.