Report: Espinoza should be 'completely fine' after spill

Photo: Benoit Photo

Doctors believe Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza is "going to be completely fine" following a spill during Sunday morning training, his agent, Brian Beach, told the Daily Racing Form's Jay Privman. But Beach did announce on Twitter that the rider will miss the remainder of the Del Mar meet.

Espinoza fractured the C-3 vertebra in his neck when thrown from Grade 2 winner Bobby Abu Dhabi, who is believed to have suffered a heart attack during a workout. The jockey also complained of pain in his left shoulder diagnosed as a "stinger" which left him with numbness.

Espinoza, 46, has won three Kentucky Derbys and in 2015 swept the Triple Crown series on American Pharoah. In recent years, he also rose to fame as the regular rider of Horse of the Year California Chrome. Espinoza's top current mount is on Accelerate, the multiple Grade 1 winner who's training toward a start in the Aug. 18 TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

Bobby Abu Dhabi, a 4-year-old son of Macho Uno, owned by Gary Hartunian’s Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen and trained by Peter Miller, was in training for next Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes.

The colt was working in company with stablemate El Huerfano when Bobby Abu Dhabi fell between the sixteenth pole and the wire at approximately 9:05 a.m. PT. Espinoza was motionless until tended to by paramedics, then taken to Scripps La Jolla Hospital where he remains in intensive care.

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