Grade 1 winner Joking returns to work tab

Joking, last year’s Grade 1 Vosburgh winner, returned to the work tab for the first time in 50 weeks Friday, breezing three furlongs in 38.89 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

It was Joking’s first breeze since last Oct. 27 at Belmont when he was preparing for a start in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita. Joking got sick when he arrived in Southern California and had to scratch from the Sprint. He later developed pneumonia and got so sick that he nearly died.

After a lengthy time away, he returned to training in the spring, but soon after popped a splint bone that sidelined him again.

“It’s been a long road, no doubt about it,” trainer Charlton Baker said. “He’s one you’re just happy to have in the barn, to tell you the truth. He put on weight, he looks good. He was always skinny before, but he actually got a good body on him.”

Baker said he hopes Joking, an 8-year-old gelding by Distorted Humor, will be on a regular work schedule that will have him being back to the races potentially by the end of November or early December.