Nearly 4½ months after being injured in a spill at Laurel Park, journeyman Victor Carrasco made his long-awaited return to the races Sunday.
Carrasco, 30, finished sixth aboard Sycamore Hall Thoroughbreds' Libraryofcongress, a first-time starter for trainer Graham Motion, in Race 6, a seven-furlong maiden claimer for 3-year-olds. As a Maryland-bred, the Honor Code colt had the claiming price waived.
Libraryofcongress stumbled out of the gate and raced near the back of the nine-horse field in the early going before making a late run and winding up eight lengths behind Mine Run, half of the favored Brittany Russell-trained entry.
A four-time meet-leading rider in Maryland and the 2013 Eclipse Award winner as outstanding apprentice jockey, Carrasco's mount was his first in 150 days since the eve of the 2022 Jim McKay Maryland Million. He was hurt when his horse, Hooky Player, fell approaching the wire in the Oct. 21 opener.
A winner of nearly 1,200 career races, Carrasco was named in seven of the eight stakes and four starter stakes on Maryland Million Day. One of his mounts, Sky's Not Falling, won the $100,000 Turf Sprint with Paco Lopez aboard.
Carrasco wound up seventh overall in Maryland in 2022 with 61 wins from 376 mounts, with $3.133 million in purses earned. Jockey Kevin Gomez, who broke his collarbone in the same spill, returned to riding Jan. 6.
“I had a dislocated left thumb. It was pretty bad,” Carrasco said. “I didn't know that it was going to take me this long to get back to where I'm at right now. The doctor said that my thumb was dislocated in the main joint, and that's the reason it took me longer than we expect to get back.
“They gave me two options. They said we can put a screw on your thumb, but you're going to have to have the screw for the rest of your life. Or, we can take your own tendon from your forearm and wrap your thumb with your own tendon. But it's going to be a longer recovery. I'm sure with a pin, I could have been back in eight to 12 weeks,” he added. “It was pretty challenging. I never thought that I would need my left thumb as much as I did when I got hurt.”
After getting clearance from his doctors, Carrasco began getting on horses for Motion at Tampa Bay Downs before returning to Maryland, where he is represented by agent Scotty Silver.
“It feels fine. I wanted to test it out in the warm weather before I came to the cold weather just to make sure I was 100 percent,” Carrasco said. “It was great. I started getting on horses for Graham. Jesse Cruz put me on one. I came back up to Fair Hill and Laurel and things have been pretty much back to normal, working for the same outfits and trying to get myself back in shape.”
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