Rispoli begins comeback from injury

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Umberto Rispoli is preparing for a comeback after sustaining leg and ankle injuries at Gulfstream Park in January.

Rispoli began exercising horses at Santa Anita last Friday. He plans to resume riding during a brief stay at Ellis Park in Kentucky in early July before focusing on the Del Mar summer meeting that begins on July 17, according to his agent, Matt Nakatani.

“He’s eager to get back,” Nakatani said.

Rispoli sustained injuries to an ankle and fibula after being unseated from Unconquerable Keen when the gelding clipped heels in the stretch of the $175,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on Jan. 24. Rispoli underwent surgery the following day on his ankle and had additional operations in subsequent days. At the time, Rispoli was the leading rider at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.

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Rispoli, 37, was the leading rider at the 2025 Del Mar autumn meeting, his first title at Del Mar or Santa Anita since relocating from Hong Kong to Southern California in December 2019.

In 2025, Rispoli won 129 races with mounts that made more than $13.4 million, a personal best of his American career. He has won 710 races in the United States.

A native of Italy, Rispoli won his first American classic on Journalism in the Preakness Stakes in May 2025. Journalism also won the Santa Anita Derby and Haskell Invitational and was second in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes with Rispoli aboard in 2025.

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