If Kinnon LaRose was still uncertain about how far removed he is from being a slick-shooting, Division 1 college basketball player to now being a Thoroughbred trainer, he was given a clear signal on Aug. 5 at Saratoga.

That was the day of the annual Jockey vs. Horsemen Charity Basketball Game that benefits the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.

“I did okay for a while,” said the 29-year-old LaRose. “I was good for the first five minutes and then my legs gave out.”

LaRose’s basketball playing days may be a thing of the past – he averaged 10.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and was the team captain as a senior at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. – his promising training career is just getting started.

On Saturday, he will send out Intraosseous in the $100,000 Sorority Stakes for 2-year-old fillies going a mile at Monmouth Park, with the Kentucky-bred daughter of Girvin coming off a sharp six-furlong maiden special weight win at Saratoga on July 25.

“She has been a very straight forward filly for us,” he said. “Her first time out at Churchill Downs (at six furlongs on June 28) she broke badly from the 12 hole and was very wide and lost a lot of ground. She still came flying late to get third.

“So we were pretty confident for her second time out at Saratoga. She broke well and just sat in behind horses and when the jockey (Ricardo Santana) gave her the cue to go she responded. She ran a good race that day.

“We think she will get the mile in this race. She’s bred to go longer and the way she is built it looks like she will get better as she goes longer. She’s a long, rangy filly.”

Nine fillies have entered the 71^st edition of the Sorority Stakes.

For LaRose, a win on Saturday would extend what has been a promising first year on his own. After working his way up from hot walker to groom to foreman and then into the role as assistant trainer for Tom Amoss, he took over the barn when Amoss retired on April 1 after saddling 4,278 winners in a career that started in 1987.

All 60-plus horses were transferred to Larose, who has won 19 races from 120 starters so far, including the Grade 3 Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga with Stress Relief on Aug. 2.

“To be able to win my first graded stakes at Saratoga, with my family and friends there and Tom Amoss and his family there made it an awesome day,” said LaRose. “It makes you want to get back to it.”

LaRose, who hails from Ogdensburg, N.Y. (a 6-3 guard, he is the career scoring leader at Ogdensburg Free Academy), currently has a 20-horse division at Saratoga, with the remainder of his stable in Kentucky.

He is all racing now, however – though he does concede “I miss basketball a little bit.”

“But I can still feed my competitive drive at the racetrack,” he said.

He said he is particularly grateful to Amoss for the opportunities he has had, saddling his first starter on April 2, the day after Amoss stepped away from training.

“He put a lot of people in my corner who have given me plenty of opportunities to put myself out there,” said LaRose. “I’m very fortunate to have the association I have with Tom.

“I’m fortunate to have Tom as a sounding board and guiding me in the right direction. All of the owners have been very loyal to us. It has helped us continue to have success.”

When Intraosseous steps into stakes company for the first time on Saturday, LaRose sees a pace scenario that should benefit his filly, who prefers to sit off the early speed.

“There’s quite a bit of speed in the race,” he said. “She’s relatively good out of the gate. The hope is to break sharp and let the pace develop inside of her. After that it will be Luis Rivera’s ride from there. He’s having a very good meet there.”

Rivera is currently second in the Monmouth Park jockey standings with 38 wins, 13 behind leader Paco Lopez with eight live racing days remaining in the meet.