DeCarlo finally makes it back from injury

ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Chris DeCarlo on Wednesday will ride his first race in nearly 10 months when he climbs aboard Blue Chips Only for Osvaldo Rojas in a $14,000 claiming race that goes as the sixth. DeCarlo has not ridden since Sept. 21.

DeCarlo suffered a broken foot and a torn labrum in his right shoulder while guiding a filly from the barn of trainer Robert Falcone to the track for a workout.

“She reared up and ran backwards, and she slipped on the pavement and landed on me,” DeCarlo recalled.

DeCarlo, 46, said the injury to his shoulder wasn’t diagnosed until a month and a half after the incident when he went back for a follow-up visit for his foot. An MRI revealed the shoulder injury, which required surgery.

“I would have been better off breaking a bone,” DeCarlo said.

DeCarlo, who rode his 1,100th career winner Sept. 20, has one mount each day this week and hopes to ride the meet at Saratoga, where last summer he won four races from 35 mounts. He has been getting on horses in the mornings for trainers Todd Pletcher, Bill Mott, Tom Albertrani, and Shug McGaughey.

“Saratoga is the toughest meet of the year to start back up,” DeCarlo said. “I got to spend the whole time away with my daughter, which was the only positive to it all. But I really missed working.”