Blanc nears return to race riding more than a year after injury

For one veteran jockey, the Friday program at Santa Anita next week will be the start of a long-awaited resumption of a career in its fourth decade.

Brice Blanc, who has not ridden since he sustained injuries in a spill at Del Mar in late August 2020, has been working toward a return to riding in the last month. If all goes well in coming days, Blanc will ride on Friday.

Blanc, 48, fractured the C7 vertebra and two ribs and sustained a broken shoulder and dislocated thumb when Great Power clipped heels and fell in a turf race.

“The thumb was the most painful,” Blanc said on a recent morning at Santa Anita.

Blanc was briefly hospitalized in early September 2020 before the extent of his injuries was known. As his stay continued, he experienced discomfort in his upper back because of the C7 fracture.

“It took a little while,” Blanc said. “They took a few CT-scans. I got a little scared.”

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Once home, Blanc wore a brace for three months and gradually showed progress.

“The therapy was a little tough and set me back,” he said.

Blanc resumed exercising horses in September with doctor’s permission with the understanding he would work horses for a month as part of the final stages of his therapy. Earlier this month, Blanc said a return to morning activity allowed him to regain skills needed for race riding.

“At the beginning, I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “I didn’t want to rush into it. I wanted to see if I still had the passion for being on horses.

“After the first couple, I felt a little funky. On the second week, I felt like I was back. I thought, we’ll go from there.”

Blanc has won 1,050 races, riding primarily in Southern California. He had his first winner in 1995. In those days, as an apprentice, he rode periodically for the legendary Charlie Whittingham, teaming for five wins. A few years later, he won several graded stakes for another legendary trainer in Bobby Frankel, including three Grade 1 races on Happyanunoit.

When the injury occurred last year, Blanc briefly considered retirement, but only briefly, he said. Longtime goals will be reassessed as the comeback continues.

“I don’t think any athlete wants to finish like that,” he said of the injury. “I’ve told myself I wanted to retire at 50 and that’s a year and a half away. If I can finish that off, I can go on to something else. But some guys ride later, until they are 55 or 56.

“The next thing is getting fast horses. That’s the hard part to get.”