Brad Rawiller expects to be back riding within the week after having to forfeit rides at Flemington because of a ligament injury.

Rawiller suffered the medial ligament injury when he came off a horse in a pre-race mishap at Ballarat two weeks ago.

He was confident he was fit to ride at Flemington on Saturday and was cleared to take part.

But the Group One-winning jockey was ruled out after his first ride on Topkapi who finished among the tail-enders.

"I really just didn't have any reason to think it wasn't right," Rawiller said.

"(But) when I jumped out of the barriers I knew I was in trouble. Obviously I was going to get through the race but when I pulled up, I literally couldn't trot the horse without being in significant pain.

"So I'm just going to have to give it some more time."

Rawiller said he had been running since the Ballarat incident but had not ridden trackwork before Saturday.

"That's probably my mistake," he said.

"I've been training and running and thinking I was on top of it, but with medial ligaments it's actually not straight line running that's the problem."

The hard-working rider saw Racing Victoria doctor Gary Zimmerman on Wednesday.

"He said it might be still a little bit painful but he was happy enough with it, if I was happy.

"And I was happy."

Rawiller said the injury usually took two to three weeks to mend, so he would look to testing it at trackwork late in the week with a view to riding on Saturday.