OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Joel Rosario, the leading jockey in North America this year in purse money won, will be out for at least three weeks after suffering a hairline fracture of a rib in a spill Thursday at Aqueduct. An optimistic expectation is that Rosario could return to ride the opening-day card on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita, according to his agent, Ron Anderson. “I think it’s more three weeks than five or six weeks,” Anderson said. “We’ll just have to bite the bullet a little bit.” Rosario was injured when Irish Constitution, his mount in Thursday’s second race, ducked out sharply just past the finish line, unseating Rosario. The jockey was down for a few moments, got up himself, and walked off the track with assistance. He was taken to track first aid, but was not sent to the hospital. He ultimately went to the hospital on his own. “When he was breathing he was having pain,” Anderson said. Rosario was taken off his final three mounts on Thursday. He was listed to ride six horses Friday and was named to ride in all four graded stakes Saturday at Aqueduct, including Olympiad in the Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile. :: DRF Bets players get free Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Click to learn more. Following Sunday’s Aqueduct card, Rosario was going to take a three-day suspension handed him by the Pimlico stewards from Preakness week. Rosario was due to ride at Remington Park on Dec. 17 and Gulfstream Park on Dec. 18, but he won’t make either of those assignments. Starting Jan. 7, Rosario is going to be based at Oaklawn Park. Rosario was chasing three records – as well as his first Eclipse Award for leading jockey – over the final month of 2021. With $32,944,478 in earnings, Rosario was within $1.16 million of Irad Ortiz Jr.’s single-year record of $34,109,019 set in 2019. Rosario has won 228 races from 1,083 mounts in 2021. Rosario won 69 stakes, seven shy of Garrett Gomez’s record of 76 in 2007. Rosario won 49 graded stakes, six shy of Jerry Bailey’s record of 55 set in 2003. Rosario is the regular rider of Knicks Go, on whom he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Whitney, and Pegasus World Cup. Rosario also won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies aboard Echo Zulu and won Grade 1 stakes on Jackie’s Warrior, Malathaat, Kimari, and Idol. “It was magical,” Anderson of Rosario’s 2021 season. “To have that that kind of year you have to be good, but you have to be lucky too.” At the short Kentucky Downs meet, Rosario set a record with 17 wins from 53 mounts, and his horses earned $2,949,307.