Vlad Duric won a Group One in April riding with discomfort from an injured thumb, but the jockey soon realised he needed to take time off.

Duric suffered ligament damage to his left thumb when he fell in a race at Caulfield in April but it wasn't until mid-May that the jockey took a break from riding to let it heal properly.

He is scheduled to return to race riding on Wednesday week, having ridden trackwork for nearly three weeks.

Duric's injury was sustained on April 19 and he returned on April 25 to ride at Flemington.

A day later he won the Group One Robert Sangster Stakes in Adelaide on the Gai Waterhouse-trained Driefontein and he kept riding until May 14.

"I had it strapped and was just trying to ride through it and it was just getting to a stage where it was starting to get worse," Duric said.

"I could just see if I kept going I was going to end up not riding eventually anyway, so it was just a matter of biting the bullet and giving it some time to heal up.

"Now it's 100 per cent. And I've been doing a heap of (track) work in the mornings.

"I'm pretty much ready to go now but I just thought I'd give myself an extra week to get my fitness 100 per cent."

Duric is sixth in the Melbourne metropolitan jockeys' premiership with 29 wins, one win behind Michael Rodd who is fifth in the standings.

He believes he would probably have finished in the top three or four had it not been for the injury.

"I'm still sitting sixth and am pretty happy with the season I have had," Duric said.

"I just want to get back and start riding some winners and hopefully get some momentum into the spring carnival."