Joel Rosario, among the leading riders in Southern California, will be moving his tack to Belmont Park beginning June 27, his agent Ron Ebanks said Sunday.
Ebanks said he and Rosario had been contemplating a move to New York for the last year but expedited the decision due to the collarbone injury suffered Saturday night at Churchill Downs by John Velazquez, which is expected to keep him out of action for two months.
Ebanks, speaking by phone from California, also said the “best horses are going to be back there,” in New York. “That’s the main reason we’re coming there.”
Ebanks said he has already reached out to several New York horsemen that plan to use Rosario, who was the leading rider at the Santa Anita Park meet with 89 wins and who is currently third in the standings at Betfair Hollywood Park with 24 wins.
“There are lots of problems, that’s not going to be one of them,” Ebanks said. “They won’t leave Joel in the jockeys’ room.”
Through Sunday, Rosario ranked ninth in North America in races won with 116 and sixth in purse money won with $6,169,966.
Rosario, 24, is currently serving a suspension handed him by the California stewards. He is expected to return Saturday at Hollywood Park, where he will ride Via Villaggio in the Grade 2, $150,000 Hollywood Oaks. Next Sunday, he will ride Capital Plan in the Grade 3, $100,000 Beverly Hills Handicap, also at Hollywood.
Ebanks said Rosario would then come to New York and hope to begin riding June 27, the first day of the new condition book.
Rosario, a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, has 1,354 career victories and has finished in the top five in purse money won the last three years.
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