Jockeys Carrasco, Rodriguez to Miss Rest of Winter-Spring Meet
Jockeys Carrasco, Rodriguez to Miss Rest of Winter-Spring Meet
Trio of Turf Events, Carryovers Mark Return of Live Racing Friday
LAUREL, MD - Jockeys Victor Carrasco and Guillermo Rodriguez will each miss the remainder of Laurel’s winter-spring meet that ends May 7 with injuries stemming from a spill during Sunday’s finale.
Carrasco, the 2013 Eclipse Award-winning apprentice who ranked fourth at the current meet in purse earnings ($864,840) and sixth in wins (22), will be out at least eight weeks with a fractured scapula, agent Tom Stift said.
Stift said Carrasco will be in a sling until his next doctor’s visit, scheduled for May 1.
“He goes back in three weeks and they’ll check him out. If everything’s good, which it looks like, he’ll be out eight weeks,” Stift said. “He’s just got to wear the sling for three weeks until they check him out. They’ll probably let him know from there what he’s got to do. The doctor said it would be eight weeks to heal. Whether he’s going to need therapy or not, they’ll tell him what he has to do on the 1st as far as the rehab.”
Carrasco was aboard Stalk in a $16,000 maiden claiming sprint moved from the turf to the main track when the even-money favorite suddenly broke down after taking a clear lead past the quarter pole and threw the rider. Rodriguez, on long shot Unclenedwhodrank, was unable to avoid the fallen horse and jockey.
“He got really lucky, actually. As bad as it was, he was really lucky,” Stift said. “He has big hoof print on his back, on his shoulder blade, on his back, almost right between the shoulders right in the middle of his back. It’s just about three inches to the left, so three inches to the center it would have been bad. You could see the horse print on his shoulder and you could even see the holes where they put the shoes. It looked like somebody just painted a horseshoe on his back.”
Rodriguez had surgery Monday to repair a lacerated spleen and another operation Tuesday to fix broken bones in his hand, agent J.D. Brown said. He is not expected to return until August at the earliest.
“He’s doing pretty good. He’ll be laid up for a while and hopefully he’ll be out three or four months. He broke a couple bones in his hand, and when they did an MRI on him they found that his spleen had a laceration on it, so they operated on that,” Brown said. “They didn’t have to remove it. It could have been because he could have bled on the inside. He had no pain there and said he didn’t even know it. It was bad, but it could have been a lot worse.”
Trio of Turf Events, Carryovers Mark Return of Live Racing Friday
A total of 29 horses were entered in three turf races that mark the return of live racing at Laurel Park on Friday.
Post time for the first of nine races is 1:10 p.m.
A pair of $40,000 maiden events for 3-year-olds and up are scheduled over the Bowl Game Turf Course layout in Race 3 and Race 7, each drawing nine entries. A field of 11 was entered in Race 5, a $30,000 starter optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up carded at about 1 1/16 miles on the Exceller Turf Course.
The three races would mark the first grass events of 2017 on Laurel’s world-class turf course. The first grass stakes of the year, the $75,000 Henry S. Clark and the $75,000 Dahlia, both at one mile for 3-year-olds and up, are scheduled for Saturday, April 22.
Friday’s program will also include a carryover of $2,662.39 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 4-9), $5,855.62 in the 50-cent Late Pick 5 (Races 5-9), and $1,597.01 in the $1 Super Hi-5 for the opener, a $15,000 claiming event for 3-year-olds and up at about 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
