Aqueduct: Dominguez hoping to be exercising horses in two weeks

NYRA

Ramon Dominguez (right) talks with Mike Luzzi on Sunday during his first visit to Aqueduct since being injured on Jan. 18.

Jockey Ramon Dominguez, injured in a spill at Aqueduct on Jan. 18, said Sunday he hopes to get clearance to begin exercising horses in the mornings in two weeks.

Dominguez, the reigning three-time Eclipse Award-winning rider, visited Aqueduct Sunday for the first time since his spill at that track, in which he suffered a fractured skull.

Dominguez told the New York Racing Association that his next appointment with his doctors is March 25, at which time he hopes to get clearance to begin getting on horses in the mornings

“I’m pretty optimistic that he will find me good enough to come back,” Dominguez said. “From that point on, if he okays me, it will just be a matter of getting fit again, and that shouldn’t take too long. I’m speculating, but it depends on what they say, and on the 25th we’ll see.”

Should Dominguez get the green light at that time to start riding in the morning, it is likely he would be able to ride in the afternoons in time for the April 6 Wood Memorial card at Aqueduct.

Dominguez, 36, was hospitalized for 20 days following the spill, spending time at three different facilities. He was released from the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, N.Y., on Feb. 6 and has been doing therapy on an outpatient basis since then.

“Unless they’re lying to me, everyone is happy not only with my condition but with the progress I’ve made in a short period of time,” Dominguez said. “In the beginning, I felt like, ‘I’m okay! I don’t need this!’ but right away I realized I was getting a lot of help from all of the different types of exercises.”