Hovdey: Rosario may be California dreaming, but he's proving right at home at Churchill Downs

Joel Rosario entered the Churchill Downs jockeys room late Saturday afternoon, stripped off a set of Centennial Farm silks, and offered a hand of greeting, then quickly took it back.

“Let me take a shower first,” he said. “I got a little dirty.”

The Kentucky sand may have gone down the drain, but the glow of Breeders’ Cup Friday lingered. Rosario acquired a mile and three-quarters worth of topsoil winning the Marathon Stakes aboard Rocketry to cap a three-winner performance, during which he became the first rider to win both the Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies since Pat Day turned the trick with Timber Country and Flanders in 1994, also at Churchill Downs.

Rosario shared day one riding honors with fellow New Yorkers Javier Castellano, who won the inaugural Juvenile Turf Sprint aboard Bulletin, and Irad Ortiz Jr., who enjoyed nothing but scenery with the audacious Newspaperofrecord in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, while William Buick won a staggerfest aboard Line of Duty on increasingly bad ground in the Juvenile Turf.

Make that soon-to-be former fellow New Yorkers. Rosario, 33, will be relocating to Southern California this winter, returning to the roots of his rise as one of the nation’s top riders more than a decade ago.

“Come here, I want you to meet this kid,” said legendary agent Vince DeGregory as he escorted a fresh-faced Rosario into Hollywood Park one afternoon. “He’s gonna be the next big star.”

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DeGregory was right. Rosario went on to grab a bunch Southern California riding titles before shifting to New York in 2012. All the while, Rosario kept a lifeline open to the West for occasional stakes dates while clinging to the idea that New York was the land of unlimited opportunity.

It wasn’t, but Rosario hardly starved. His Breeders’ Cup bounty from Friday ran his lifetime mount earnings to more than $182 million, 12th among all current riders. The stables of trainers like John Sadler and Peter Miller await Rosario in California, not to mention a firm foothold aboard Game Winner, the Bob Baffert colt who won the climactic Juvenile on Friday.

In the wake of Game Winner’s victory, his fourth without a defeat, Baffert was asked if his colt, as well as other stable goodies, was the carrot that finally coaxed Rosario back to California.

“It wasn’t me,” Baffert insisted. “Heck, I tried to get him back there last year, and the year before that.”

Rosario confirmed that the idea had been percolating for some time with his agent, Ron Anderson. Certainly the rise of young talents like Jose and Irad Ortiz, along with the ongoing New York presence of Hall of Famers John Velazquez and Javier Castellano, made a significant difference in Rosario’s market share. Looking at the early winter months in Florida, Santa Anita suddenly seemed inviting, despite a room dense with young talent.

“And I’ll get to see my kids a lot more,” said Rosario, who is divorced. Two of his four children live in Temecula, an inland community to the southeast of Santa Anita.

Rosario ended up on Game Winner in a Del Mar maiden race when the rider was in town to take over for the injured Victor Espinoza aboard Accelerate in the Pacific Classic. Mario Gutierrez subbed for Game Winner’s Del Mar Futurity score, but Rosario was back aboard for the FrontRunner at Santa Anita, and figures to be glued on next year as well.

“The first part of the race he got behind horses a little bit and didn’t like the dirt in his face, so I got him to the outside,” Rosario said of his trip in the Juvenile.

For a lot longer than expected, they had their hands full with longshot Knicks Go, ridden by Breeders’ Cup rookie Albin Jimenez. Knicks Go, owned by Korean Jin Woo Lee, swerved late and gave Game Winner a bump. But the favorite persisted and drew away.

“He’s the kind of horse that has another gear,” Rosario said. “And he just keeps going. Especially going long.”

Neither of Rosario’s Friday BC winners was from a New York barn. Juvenile Fillies winner Jaywalk, a daughter of Cross Traffic, is trained at Parx Racing by John Servis of Smarty Jones and Cathryn Sophia fame. Rosario rode Jaywalk for the first time in the Frizette at Belmont.

“She ran really well at Belmont and she ran the same race today,” Rosario said, which quite literally was true. Her winning margin in the Frizette was 5 3/4 lengths. On Friday, it was 5 1/2.

“She got the lead, relaxed, and just kept going,” he said.

As good as Rosario’s day was on the dead, drying out Churchill Downs main track, his experiences in two of the three 2-year-old grass races were forgettable. War of Will was fifth in the Juvenile Turf and Pocket Dynamo was ninth in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, about eight length back of Bulletin’s front-running dash under Castellano.

“He broke so fast I lost my iron,” said Castellano, who rode the son of City Zip for Todd Pletcher. “It took me a little time to get my foot back in. Riding in Venezuela, we gallop all the time with our feet out of the stirrups, then put them in when we start a work. I guess you’re supposed to remember how to do that, like riding a bicycle, but it had been a long time.”

As for the ground, which absorbed around two inches of rain, Castellano said there was no way of telling how your horse would handle it until the gates opened.

“Todd’s horse felt like he was on top of the ground, barely touching it,” Castellano said. “Then in the very next race, when I rode My Gal Betty, she could hardly get her feet out of it. And she had won on soft turf before.”

The turf figured to be a bit firmer for Saturday’s card, and Rosario would have mounts in three of the four grass races. But he was forgiven if his thoughts turned more toward the main track and the prospect of winning his first Breeders’ Cup Classic. He would be riding Accelerate, the consensus favorite.

“What do you think?” Rosario said with a betraying smile. “You like his chances?”

The answer was easy. But with Thunder Snow, Yoshida, Mind Your Biscuits, Catholic Boy, West Coast, and McKinzie in the mix, Rosario knew he couldn’t rest on Friday’s laurels.