Rispoli booked for first mount since January injury
?q=100)
Jockey Umberto Rispoli is booked to ride the high-profile maiden Faran at Los Alamitos on Saturday, his first mount since sustaining leg injuries at Gulfstream Park in late January.
Rispoli resumed exercising horses earlier this month at Santa Anita. He is planning to ride the Del Mar summer meeting, which begins on July 17. In coming days and weeks, Rispoli will ride at Los Alamitos on Sunday and will ride briefly at Ellis Park, according to his agent, Matt Nakatani.
Faran, a 3-year-old colt by Not This Time, was purchased for $3.4 million at the 2024 Saratoga Sale of select yearlings, the most expensive hip of the prestigious auction.
Trained by Bob Baffert for Zedan Racing, Faran has had a delayed debut. He has seven recorded workouts as a 2-year-old – three in the spring and four last fall. Faran has had six workouts since mid-May, including five furlongs in a quick 59 seconds from the gate at Santa Anita on Sunday.
Faran is out of the stakes-placed Kayce Ace, the dam of Comical, who won a maiden race at Santa Anita and the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Saratoga in her first two starts.
Faran is part of a field of seven that includes three other first-time starters – Sudeikis, trained by Baffert; Carolina Legacy, trained by John Sadler, and After Dawn, trained by Richard Mandella.
Sudeikis, by McKinzie, has worked quickly in recent weeks, as has Carolina Legacy, a gelding by Munnings who drew the inside post.
Sadler also starts Jetway, who is by Munnings, and was second by a half-length in a $32,000 claimer for maidens at 5 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on May 3 after disputing the early pace.
The Mandella-trained Noble Testament has his first start of 2026 in the maiden race. Noble Testament, a half-brother to 2021 Preakness winner Rombauer, was fourth of five in a maiden race at Del Mar last August in his only previous start.
Noble Testament zoomed five furlongs in 59.20 seconds at Santa Anita on June 7 in the buildup to his return on Saturday.
Rispoli sustained injuries to an ankle and fibula when he was 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 the following days.
At the time, Rispoli was the leading rider at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.
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 more than $13.4 million, a personal best of his American career. He has won 710 races in the United States.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.