Looking for a revival, Rosario set for return to familiar surroundings

Hall of Fame jockey Joel Rosario is returning to familiar surroundings in an effort to revive his career.

Rosario, a former leading rider at Del Mar, Hollywood Park and Santa Anita in the late 2000s and early 2010s, will begin riding on a full-time basis at Santa Anita on Sunday.

Rosario, 41, is booked on four mounts, including Boss Sully in the day’s main race – the $100,000 Siren Lure Stakes for turf sprinters.

“I’m ready for a change,” Rosario said in a phone interview earlier this week.

In the last few months, Rosario has ridden at Gulfstream Park, Keeneland, and Churchill Downs, where he had a winner in a maiden race on the Kentucky Derby program last Saturday.

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Rosario won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding jockey of 2021, the year his mounts earned a career-best $32,956,215. The number has slumped in the last two years to more than $15.6 million in 2024, and more than $14.5 million last year.

Through Thursday, Rosario has had 20 wins from 168 mounts that have earned more than $2.99 million in 2026. Rosario was represented by the prominent agent Ron Anderson, an arrangement that ended recently. Anderson booked mounts on behalf of Rosario in his championship year in 2021.

Bill Castle is Rosario’s new agent.

“Hopefully, we can get support from the people and the opportunities,” Rosario said. “That’s my main goal.”

Rosario joins a jockey’s roster far different than 15 or so years ago. Of the current top 10 riders at Santa Anita, only Tyler Baze rode against Rosario in those years.

Rosario was the leading rider at Santa Anita at the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 winter-spring meetings, and led the standings at the Del Mar summer meetings for three consecutive years from 2009 to 2011. He also won riding titles at now-closed Hollywood Park.

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