Jockey Garcia getting 'legged up and fit' for first race back
The band isn’t quite back together, but Bob Baffert has since last weekend had jockey Martin Garcia “getting legged up and fit” on horses in the mornings at Santa Anita Park, where Garcia is scheduled to ride in his first race since November.
“We don’t have anything set,” Baffert said as far as assignments on his horses. “He came to me and said, ‘Hey man, can you help me get ready?’
“We’re family back there. Martin means a lot to me.”
Garcia, hospitalized last September after a training incident at Santa Anita, took off the rest of Del Mar’s meet in mid-November due to a separated shoulder.
A winner of the Preakness Stakes (Lookin At Lucky) and Breeders’ Cup Classic (Bayern), Garcia also regularly worked American Pharoah during his Triple Crown campaign. His biggest mounts all came from Baffert, with whom he’s had an on-and-off working relationship.
On Friday, as Santa Anita resumes racing for the first time since March 8, Garcia will be aboard Doug O’Neill-trained Mr. Classical in Race 8, a maiden claiming event for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs.
Tom Knust, who according to Santa Anita Park also will handle business for Abel Cedillo this summer at Del Mar, is Garcia’s current agent.