Velazquez cleared to exercise horses next week
July 9, 2012Top jockey John Velazquez has been cleared to begin exercising horses next week, a month after breaking his collarbone in a spill at Churchill Downs.
Velazquez says Monday that his doctor told him he was ``healing very well'' and has been given the go-ahead to climb aboard horses next Monday at Saratoga Race Course.
The rider, who will be inducted in racing's Hall of Fame next month, says he hopes it ``won't be too much longer before I can race again.''
Velazquez won the Belmont Stakes aboard Union Rags on June 9, and is hoping to ride the colt in the Haskell Invitational on July 29.
Velazquez was injured on June 16 in Kentucky when the horse he was riding in the ninth race at Churchill broke down.