Rosario to ride Breeders' Cup Classic favorite McKinzie

The decision’s in: Joel Rosario has picked up the mount for likely Breeders’ Cup Classic favorite McKinzie.

As reported Wednesday by the Daily Racing Form’s Jay Privman, Rosario will hop off Yoshida to team up with trainer Bob Baffert. Last year, the two combined to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with Game Winner, and Rosario also won the Classic the next day aboard Accelerate.

Rosario replaced Mike Smith, who rode McKinzie in each of his 13 career starts. Baffert elected to make a change once the 4-year-old by Street Sense was defeated in his final Breeders’ Cup prep, the Awesome Again (G1) at Santa Anita Park.

“It’s very exciting for Joel,” said Rosario’s agent, Ron Anderson. “Obviously I lobbied for the horse when I heard Mike was going to be replaced, and I’m sure Bob had others that lobbied, too.”

Yoshida appears to be cycling back to nice form after second in Saratoga’s Whitney (G1) and third in the Woodward (G1). But this was an easy decision for Rosario.

“He’s training out there. It’s Bob Baffert. It’s a Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Anderson said of riding McKinzie. “The other horse has been running at Saratoga and eastern tracks.

“Yoshida’s an awfully good horse, and we’d have some sort of chance, but if I had a choice to make 100 times, I would have picked (McKinzie) quite a few of those times.”

Rosario has ridden all over the country this year, based at different times in California, Kentucky and New York. His mounts’ $18.1 million earned ranks fourth in North America, and he’s winning at a 20% clip.

As for Rosario’s future full-time bases, Anderson said he’ll “most likely go back to Santa Anita and then continue on the same kind of schedule we did this year — going to Keeneland, then back to Belmont and Saratoga.

“Luckily enough,” the agent added, “with a rider with this kind of talent, we can shuffle around a little bit and show up where we need to be. Those are the next few months the way it feels right now.”