Jockey Carrasco soon to start galloping horses

Jockey Victor Carrasco, sidelined with a badly broken right leg since a Sept. 14 spill at Delaware Park, was informed by his doctors Tuesday his bones have healed well enough for him to begin galloping horses in the next few weeks.

Carrasco, a leading rider in Maryland and the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2013, has undergone extensive physical rehabilitation the past few months and is eager to resume his career.

“It has been very, very difficult, but we are at the eighth pole now, almost at the wire, so it’s all good,” he said. “I have to keep working as hard as possible.”

Carrasco said he plans to begin getting on horseback April 10 at Laurel, but “it all depends on how well things go in physical therapy.”

Carrasco, a strong and aggressive rider, has won 841 races from 4,900 mounts, a win average of 17 percent.