Jockey Jose Valdivia Targeting Late-Spring Return After Two Shoulder Surgeries

Two shoulder surgeries stripped Jose Valdivia Jr. of something most people take for granted: the ability to use his left arm without pain. For a jockey whose balance, strength, and split-second grip mean the difference between a clean ride and a catastrophic fall, that loss was not just personal. It threatened to close out a career built across decades of Grade 1 victories in Southern California.

Valdivia, 52, has been away from racing since December. His most recent operation stabilized the left shoulder and materially improved mobility, a meaningful shift from the pre-surgery reality in which he was struggling with day-to-day activities involving his left arm. He told the Daily Racing Form the improvement has given him a structured path back: medical clearance in April, exercising horses in May, and a return to competitive riding in June, if rehabilitation progresses as expected.

"I hope [the doctor] will give me the okay to get on horses," Valdivia told DRF. "Then it's a matter of fitness. I don't think that will take that long. I'm working out and starting to work on my weight to get it back down."

The fitness piece carries real weight at this stage of the comeback. After months off the track, Valdivia has identified three specific hurdles: weight management, rebuilding core strength, and restoring riding fitness. For a jockey, those are interconnected requirements. Core strength provides the stability to control a thousand-pound animal at speed; weight management is a licensing and competitive reality, not a cosmetic concern; and riding fitness, the kind that comes only from hours in the saddle, cannot be replicated in a gym.

Valdivia's recent win totals reflect a career that was already slowing before the surgeries. He won only five of 71 races last year and nine of 167 in 2024, numbers that stand in stark contrast to his standing as one of Southern California's leading riders in the 2000s. Multiple Grade 1 victories defined that earlier era; the reduced mounts and declining win percentage in recent seasons suggested the shoulder problems were already extracting a toll before the decision to operate.

A successful June return would represent more than a personal milestone. Southern California racing has long leaned on a familiar rotation of experienced riders, and Valdivia back in form would give trainers seeking a proven pilot for graded stakes mounts a credible option. At 52, with the physical demands of the sport unchanged, the comeback requires everything to align: the April clearance must come, May conditioning must rebuild what months of inactivity have cost, and June racing must confirm the shoulder can absorb the strain of competition.

Each step from the first gallop in May to the first race in June is a decision point where medical reality either confirms or revises the plan. In an industry where shoulder injuries can permanently end careers, the fact that Valdivia is structuring a comeback at all reflects a durability that has defined his decades on the biggest stages in Southern California racing.