Umberto Rispoli © Benoit Photo
It has been nearly eight months since Jockey Umberto Rispoli’s horrific accident during the running of the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint. Rispoli’s mount Unconquerable Keen clipped heels with another horse, sending the rider over his left shoulder and crashing hard onto the turf.
He suffered a fractured ankle, a broken fibula in his left leg, and a small fracture of his tibia, all of which led to multiple surgeries to repair and months of rehab in Spain and France. And yet by June, he was back up working horses and today he rides with the confidence and ability as if nothing ever happened.
“People say that and I appreciate it because I worked hard at it,” Rispoli says. “I have a lot of experience with this kind of thing. My background has been 20 years, and you learn injuries are part of the game. We don’t want to be hurt. We don’t want to be on the sideline for too long. It’s just something you have to put into the package when you sign up to be a jockey.”
Rispoli has had his share of injuries. He broke the same ankle in the past, torn an ACL in his knee as well as the meniscus and he fractured a collarbone. But he keeps bouncing back. In the case of the collarbone, he had surgery on a Saturday and was back on a horse the next Sunday.
“We are no NFL players,” Rispoli contends. “We have no contract so we can’t afford to be on the sideline too much. In this business if you don’t work you don’t eat. Of course, you can come back too quick in which case you risk hurting yourself again and time in the rehab is going to be twice as long. You don’t want that.”
He got back in time to ride a few horses at Los Alamitos and was full throttle by the time he got to Del Mar. He won a few races that first week and looked as if he had never left. He even got to reunite with an old friend. On July 25 he rode Journalism to a come-from-behind victory in the G2 San Diego.
“I think the horse ran a brave race in the San Diego,” Rispoli states. “Giving up so many lengths at the start after what happened. I think it was a brave effort. It would have been interesting at the end of the year.”
Journalism was injured in the San Diego when he broke awkwardly at the start and was retired from racing. Of all the top racehorses Rispoli has ridden in his career, there’s no question who he thinks is the best.
Umberto and Journalism Celebrating Victory in the Grade II San Diego © Benoit Photo
“I rank him on top of everyone,” Rispoli says. “To have the opportunity to ride such a brave horse, an intelligent horse, a powerful horse, a classy horse, he gave me the opportunity to get to the first Saturday in May and ride in the Kentucky Derby where you have all the eyes of the world on you. It’s not going to happen every year to ride the favorite in the Kentucky Derby so to me it was something special.”
Rispoli returned at a time when the Del Mar jockey colony was getting an upgrade. A Hall of Fame rider in Joel Rosario, a jockey with credentials for Hall of Fame consideration in Julien Leparoux and Santa Anita’s riding champ, Emisael Jaramillo all came aboard this summer. Not the same jockey colony that Rispoli defeated for the riders’ title last fall at Del Mar.
‘It’s competitive,” Rispoli states. “There are some good jockeys here. There’s a lot of respect between each other. When you’re riding with good jockeys it makes you a good jockey. You just need to take care of your horse. Sometimes when you ride with a different quality of rider you have to look around more and understand what’s going on ahead of you and behind you. I’m fortunate all my life; I’ve ridden with top class riders. Then you just need to choose the right horse and ride the perfect race.”
If there was any doubt about Rispoli’s health it was put the rest at the recent Jockeys Karoake Night for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. He teamed up with his wife, Kimberly, on “You’re the One That I Want” from the movie ‘Grease’ and clinched his third straight year of winning the event.
“I pushed her to do something together and the song we chose was a famous song from a famous movie,” Rispoli recalls. “I thought it would be fun and at the end of the day it was for the PDJF. Something to give to the crowd who had come to see the guys and put some money into the foundation. We didn’t rehearse any of the steps or the kicks. We saw it on the video and just did it right there. I told her it’s the only chance in your life to give me a kick so you better take it.”
Rispoli says he might retire from the Karaoke competition just to give his fellow jockeys a chance. But that’s only the Karaoke. He has no plans of quitting racing. He’s worked too hard to do that.