Umberto Rispoli

The year 2025 was not a good one for jockey Florent Geroux. A jockey who had won at least 100 races for 11 years in a row, and won 217 races in 2016, he won only 75 races last year. The start of 2026 was no better. When he left Fair Grounds after the Feb. 14 card, he had only seven winners on the meet. Worse yet, after going 5-for-5 on Disco Time (Not This Time), he lost the mount on the 3-2 favorite in the GI Pegasus World Cup...

Jockey Florent Geroux, based at Fair Grounds this winter, is expected to shift his tack to Santa Anita this week, according to the DRF on Sunday. According to DRF, the rider is set to arrive in California on Thursday and is scheduled to ride on Friday. Representing Geroux during his California sojourn, Matt Nakatani is also the agent for Umberto Rispoli, recently sidelined after falling during a race at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 24. "I went to visit [Rispoli] in the hospital," Geroux told DRF Sunday morning. "We talked it...

Leading jockey Umberto Rispoli, who was thrown from his mount Unconquerable Keen (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}) nearing the sixteenth pole of Saturday's Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, was taken to the hospital and has been diagnosed with a fractured ankle, tibia and fibula, according to a post on X from his agent Matt Nakatani. "This isn't the end of the road for us," Nakatani wrote. "We will be back stronger than ever. We greatly appreciate all of your support." Nakatani posted that Rispoli will undergo surgery in the near future pending conversations...

Forced to miss important fall fixtures in Ireland, France, England and America owing to a stress fracture in his femur discovered in late August, Ryan Moore made a winning return to the saddle at Lingfield Dec. 3 and on Wednesday evening, won two of the four legs--employing dramatically different tactics--to take out the Longines International Jockeys' Championship for a record-equaling third time at iconic Happy Valley Racecourse on Hong Kong Island. Other dual IJC winners include perennial leading Hong Kong rider Zac Purton, the legendary Douglas Whyte and Frankie Dettori....

Umberto Rispoli, who captured his first riding title at the recently concluded Del Mar meet, will make a return visit to Hong Kong for Wednesday's Longines International Jockeys' Championship at Happy Valley. The Italian ex-pat spent six years riding in Hong Kong before relocating to Southern California in 2019. For Rispoli, who flew into Hong Kong last Tuesday--just two days after claiming the Del Mar title--the trip is part sentiment, part family vacation, and part professional competition. "I rode here for six years, so obviously Hong Kong is a place...

Del Mar rounded out its 12th Bing Crosby Fall Meet on Sunday with a 9.4% gain in total handle, despite running one fewer day than in 2024 due to a weather-related cancellation. Total wagering for the recently concluded 13-day fall meet rose to $183.4 million compared to $167.6 million for the 14-day 2024 fall season. Average daily handle for the 13 race days was $14.1 million an increase of 17.8% from last year. Field size for the fall season remained steady at 7.77 runners per race versus 7.72 in 2024....

Juddmonte homebred Salamis (Speightstown) largely avoided traffic issues in what ended up a sit-sprint renewal of the GI Hollywood Derby, and, with clear sailing through the final furlong, was along in the final strides to give his late sire his second new graded winner on the program. The half-brother to Sunday's GI Matriarch Stakes hopeful Segesta (Ghostzapper) was taken back to the latter third of the field by Umberto Rispoli, with odds-on Test Score (Oscar Performance) riding the rails to his inside and Salamis had cover on the back of...

DEL MAR, CA - A swing through the course of American Thoroughbred history yields the widely-accepted conclusion that dirt plays the king in these parts, while turf is the patient understudy offstage left--turns are configured in that direction over here. It was not all that long ago that droves of U.S. tracks debated whether putting in a bladed surface and acquiring something called a going stick made any sense. Progressive places like Del Mar's Thoroughbred Club damned the salt in the marine layer and forged ahead with its first course...

RyZan Sun Racing LLC and Madaket Stables LLC's Mission of Joy (m, 5, Kitten's Joy--Smart Mission, by Smart Strike), whose last graded win was two years ago, moved west this summer to Phil D'Amato's barn and must like the weather and the firm turf that's a hallmark of California grass racing. In her third Golden State start, she captured Saturday's GII Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita, a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar in four weeks. It was a...

The Padre, who closed into a tepid pace to win the La Jolla Handicap last time out, repeated the dose Sunday, powering to the lead late to make it two in a row over the Del Mar lawn in the GII Del Mar Derby. The 3-5 favorite was well held while positioned off the pedestrian pace set by Freedom's Not Free. He rolled up three wide at the top of the lane and surged past the pacesetter to win with authority. "He was up against it last time with no...

Just how deep is Sunday's running of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga, a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in a little more than two months' time? Well, six of the eight remaining horses--GII Charles Town Classic winner Banishing (Ghostzapper) will be scratched--have recorded at least one Beyer Speed Figure of 104 or higher this year and three of the entrants are already Grade I winners this term. It is the very definition of a hot race. The field is led by...

Dr. Venkman (g, 5, Ghostzapper--Theory of Change, by Archarcharch), winner of the GII San Diego Handicap at Del Mar 13 months ago, returned to the scene of his biggest career triumph to add the GII Pat O'Brien Stakes Saturday. The $250,000 Pat O'Brien, run at seven furlongs, offers a 'Win and You're In' berth to the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, to be held over this surface Nov. 1. Despite a field of veterans, the Pat O'Brien was not without incident. Two of the six horses--Stronghold (Ghostzapper) and Spirit of...