Opelousas, LA -- (Sports Network) - Retired jockey Shane Sellers begins his return to the races tonight (Thursday) at Evangeline Downs in Louisiana. Sellers has been away from racing for 4 1/2 years due to a serious knee injury.

The Louisiana native will ride Ide Ball in the first race at Evangeline, his only mount of the night. The 42-year-old Sellers last rode in December, 2004 and has won 4,069 races out of 23,778 mounts with earnings of $122,431794.

This will be the second return from retirement for Sellers. A serious knee injury in December, 2000 forced him away from riding for 18 months.

"I'm healthy in both mind and spirit," Sellers said when he announced the comeback, "and am ready to do what I love. I started my career here in Louisiana and I plan on riding here and at Louisiana Downs and the Fair Grounds when this meet ends."

Sellers has been training horses at his Louisiana farm and is working with Tricia Psarreas on his autobiography.

Sellers was 1998 Horse of the Year Skip Away's primary rider during the colt's three-year-old and four-year-old seasons. The two posted wins in the Blue Grass Stakes, Travers, Woodbine Million and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, all in 1996. In 1997 the pair registered victories in the Massachusetts and Suburban Handicaps. Skip Away was voted champion three-year-old male in 1996.

In 1997 Sellers won the $1 million Juvenile Fillies with Countess Diana and the 1998 $2 million Breeders' Cup Turf aboard Buck's Boy.