Rispoli excited to face the challenge of coming east
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Umberto Rispoli is embracing the challenge that awaits him when he moves his tack from Southern California to New York next month.
“If you want to be one of the best, you have to compete with the best,” Rispoli said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
In Irad Ortiz Jr., Jose Ortiz, Joel Rosario and Javier Castellano, Rispoli will be competing almost daily with the winners of the last nine Eclipse Awards for outstanding rider. Those jockeys along with Luis Saez, John Velazquez and a solid group of year-round riders will make for a deep colony here from May through November.
Rispoli said the greater opportunities in New York – and the East Coast in general – compared to California are why he decided to come to New York this spring. Racing is conducted four days a week at Belmont Park and five at Saratoga. Racing at Santa Anita is being conducted three times a week.
The plan calls for Rispoli to move here following Santa Anita Derby weekend (April 9-10) and ride the last two weeks at Aqueduct before racing moves to Belmont. He will be represented in New York by agent Mike Sellitto, who also serves in that role for Junior Alvarado.
“I’m so excited,” Rispoli said. “Like a 15-year-old kid.”
Rispoli, 33, has ridden all over the world and in 2009 and 2010 was champion rider in Italy. He first came to the U.S. in 2020, and in his first two meets rode 50 winners at Santa Anita and 49 at Del Mar, where he finished one win behind leader Flavien Prat.
Success has slowed down some this winter for Rispoli, who through Sunday is seventh in the Santa Anita rider standings with 16 wins from 119 mounts. His two most recent stakes wins have come for Bill Mott and Mike Maker, trainers who have stables in New York.
“Things haven’t gone the way I was expecting them to go, so you say to yourself if the people over there want you, maybe it’s time to try,” Rispoli said.
Rispoli is making his move East at the same time that Prat has decided to do the same. Prat, who has morphed into California’s dominant rider, is likely coming to New York the second week of May. Rispoli said he rode with Prat in Europe.
“Everybody figured out from last year to this year how good Flavien is,” Rispoli said. “I knew before he was nominated for an Eclipse Award how good Flavien is.”
Rispoli’s life will change even before he gets to New York. His wife, Kimberley, is expecting to deliver the couple’s second child on March 17.