Jockey Shane Sellers Returns To Riding

Jockey Shane Seller returns to the saddle Thursday night at Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, La., after retiring from racing in December of 2004.

Sellers was one of the top riders in the country before suffering a serious knee injury in a freak accident while dismounting a fractious horse in a post parade in 2000. That injury kept him out of racing for more than a year and eventually played a part in his retirement.

Sellers has more than 4,000 career wins and rode in the Kentucky Derby 14 times with his best finish being a third on Wild Gale in 1993. His top victories include the 1996 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Skip Away defeating Cigar, the 1997 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Countess Diana and the 1998 Breeders' Cup Turf on Buck's Boy.

Sellers, a 43-year-old native of Earth, La., won his first race at Evangeline Downs in 1983. Sellers has long been an advocate of better health insurance and raising the weight limits for jockeys and along with former jockey Randy Romero as the subject of the HBO documentary film Jockeys.