Shane Sellers, 34, who returned to race riding after being sidelined with a leg injury since December, said he will ride in the two big races for 2-year-olds this weekend at River Downs. Sellers, third leading jockey in the nation last year, expects to ride a Frank Brothers horse in the Pepsi Bassinet Stakes on Saturday and a Pat Byrne trainee in the $200,000 Miller Genuine Draft Cradle Stakes on Labor Day, closing day of the Cincinnati track's summer meet.

        RD officials haven't released a list of the probables for their two “baby” races.

        Sellers, a Louisville resident, plans to make Arlington his home base until Keeneland opens in October. On Dec.9, Sellers was thrown and kicked by his mount, Claiborne Farm's Hike, following the post parade of a race at the Fair Grounds. He tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments and suffered severe cartilage damage in his left knee. After surgery and an intense rehabilitation program, Sellers returned to riding Saturday — four months ahead of schedule — at Prairie Meadows in Iowa, where he finished second aboard Momentous in the Prairie Meadows Oaks.

        “I'm grateful at the response I've been getting from trainers, like Wayne Lukas and Elliott Walden, and so many other horsemen who are ready to put me on their horses (again),” said Sellers, who recorded his hit single, “Matthew, Mark, Luke and Earnhardt,” while sidelined.

        Before his injury, Sellers was enjoying one of his best years. In 2000, he won 192 races from 1,1108 mounts, and his mounts earned $14,881,680, ranking third best in the country. One of his biggest victories last year came in the Travers Stakes, when Sellers rallied Unshaded through the Saratoga stretch to upset Albert the Great by a head.

        Sellers won the 1996 Cradle aboard Haint for Claiborne Farm and Brothers.

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