After suffering a hairline fracture to his fibula while loading into the gates on Jan. 19, Marcelino Pedroza, Jr. returned to Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots Thursday morning, exercising a few horses and breezing the Patricia West-trained G's Million.
“Hopefully (we'll be riding for the same barns), it seems like we will,” Pedroza's agent John Herbstreit said. “It was a tiny fracture and there wasn't anything they could do about it but give it time to heal.”
The first-call rider for trainer Sam David Jr, and one of the go-to riders for the likes of Greg Foley, Brad Cox, Patricia West and Hugh Robertson, among others, Pedroza has finished in the top 10 of the Fair Grounds' jockey standings seven times since first joining the colony in 2013-14. Over that time span, the native of Panama has won 328 races locally. Pedroza has captured three leading rider crowns at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
“I'm hoping he's on a few next week,” Herbstreit said. “They draw entries today for next Thursday's card, so we're hoping he's back aboard on Thursday.”
Pedroza is named on one horse for Thursday, Feb. 16. Nancy Vanier and Lyda Williamson's Hat Tip trained by Brian Williamson is on the also-eligible list and would need two scratches to draw in that turf allowance.
Pedroza rode O Besos in the 2021 Kentucky Derby, finishing fifth for the Foley barn.
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