Update: Corrales hurts back in spill, is off Keeneland rides
Lexington, Ky.
Gerardo Corrales took off all his rides Saturday at Keeneland after he was diagnosed with a possible compression fracture in his upper back, the result of a racing spill Friday that proved fatal to the horse he was riding.
“The MRI says he may have a compression fracture in the T4 vertebra, but doctors want to take another MRI Monday,” Corrales’s agent Cliff Collier said in a text message Saturday. “He got to go home last night and will be fine, but he was sore this morning, so we will know a lot more with the second set of X-rays. Hopefully, he does not have a compression fracture.”
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Júnior Alvarado will replace Corrales on trainer Mike Maker’s 50-1 morning-line long shot Lucky Curlin in the Grade 2, $350,000 Elkhorn Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for older horses.
February Son, a 6-year-old gelding bred and owned by Captain Jack Racing Stable and trained by Anthony Granitz, was euthanized after he fell making a move between trailing horses making the second turn in the fifth race. The $120,000 allowance test was a two-turn mile on Keeneland’s turf course that was rated good.
Corrales “was transported to the University of Kentucky’s emergency department,” a Keeneland news release said Friday. “He was evaluated and discharged from the hospital.”
Alvarado, Abel Cedillo, Luan Machado and Luis Sáez were named to replace Corrales on his mounts Saturday.
“He got a lot of calls and thanks everybody for thinking of him,” Collier said. “He was really lucky it wasn’t worse.”
Corrales, 28, is a native of Panama whose biggest win came last year with Nobals in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Jockey José Ortiz suffered a minor injury Friday when his horse Princess Celina, a 3-year-old filly, flipped in the gate before the start of the sixth race at Keeneland. Kellar reported Ortiz went to first aid to get his leg checked before he returned to complete his assignments. There was no immediate report on Princess Celina, who was reported to have walked off the track on her own.