Geroux 'out for a while' with injury; Air Strike 'totally sound'

While due for a follow up appointment, initial tests on jockey Florent Geroux indicated a broken sternum as a result of Sunday's training incident at Keeneland, where Air Strike stumbled after the wire while completing his morning breeze.

Geroux tweeted that "I'll be out for a while" with fewer than three weeks to go until the Breeders' Cup, where he was due to have a Classic mount aboard multiple Grade 3 winner Owendale.

Air Strike, a 4-year-old son of Street Sense, had posted his first workout since finishing seventh in Churchill Downs' Ack Ack Stakes (G3), going a half mile in 50.40 seconds. The Phil D'Amato trainee lost his footing while galloping out and unseated Geroux, who "went down really hard," Doug Bredar said Sunday.

Air Strike is believed to be fine, D'Amato said Monday. Three veterinarians examined the colt, who appears only to have suffered scratches on his hind legs.

"We're going over further diagnostics with him just to see if there's anything at all," D'Amato said. "He ate well and jogs totally sound up and down the road."

Air Strike, a winner of Santa Anita Park's Triple Bend (G2) earlier this season, was drilling toward a start in either Keeneland's Oct. 26 Fayette (G2) or Belmont Park's Bold Ruler (G3) on the same day. The latter race is the expected return spot for Maximum Security following a bout of colic last month.