Laurel Park Weekly Show
Laurel Park Weekly Show
Back, Knee Injuries Sideline Jockey Pimentel Up to Three Months
Multiple Stakes Winner, Laurel Track Record-Holder Rose Brier Retired
Fellowship Seeks Elusive Graded Win Saturday at Belmont
Video Link to Laurel Weekly
LAUREL, MD – Journeyman jockey Julian Pimentel will miss the rest of Laurel Park’s summer meet and at least the early part of its fall stand with back and knee injuries suffered in a spill during training hours July 1.
Agent Roniel Garcia said Pimentel, 36, fractured the T-12 vertebrae in his back and tore the meniscus and broke the kneecap in his left knee when the horse he was exercising fell past the second wire and landed on him. The horse was did not break down and was unhurt, Garcia said.
Pimentel was transported to the hospital where he was diagnosed and placed in a brace on both his back and his knee. Garcia said he is scheduled to visit a specialist July 11 to further assess the injury.
“Right now he’s in a brace. He can barely move,” Garcia said. “The doctor in the hospital said as long as he doesn’t move and stays straight with the brace on his back, the vertebrae should heal. In another six weeks they’re going to do an MRI again and if it’s not healing right then they have to do surgery and insert steel rods in his back.
“The brace on his knee goes from his thigh all the way down so he cannot move the knee, and the brace on his back is around his lower waist so he cannot bend over,” he added. “It could have been worse. He could have been paralyzed or something. He was unconscious. He went down and the horse hit him and went on top of him. Thank God he was wearing a vest.”
Pimentel, a native of Columbia, has won more than 1,500 races in North America. He ranks sixth in purses ($239,634) and eighth in wins (eight) at Laurel’s current summer meet which began June 9 and ends Aug. 20. The 60-day fall meet is set to open Sept. 8.
“We’ll know more after the doctor’s appointment,” Garcia said. “I’d say hopefully in about 12 weeks or so we’ll be back in the saddle. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”
Multiple Stakes Winner, Laurel Track Record-Holder Rose Brier Retired
Panic Stable’s Rose Brier, whose five career stakes victories all came at Maryland tracks and also owns a one-mile track record over Laurel Park’s world-class turf course, was retired from racing Wednesday, trainer Jane Cibelli said.
An 8-year-old Mizzen Mast gelding, Rose Brier won 14 of 40 career starts and finished with $527,116 in purse earnings. Most recently he was second by a nose to Special Envoy in the Edward Evans for Virginia-breds June 24 at Laurel, a race he won last year when it was contested at historic Pimlico Race Course.
“He didn’t come out of that race that great. He had a bit of filling in an ankle and sometimes he gets that. I wasn’t too awful concerned but he wasn’t quite right so we just kind of backed off him and jogged him a little bit,” Cibelli said. “Yesterday I just didn’t like the way the ankle looked. We ultrasounded him and he’s got a very small tear in his suspensory. It’s very minor but he’s 8 years old and if he can’t compete at that level we’re not going to jam him down into claiming races or anything like that. He’s been too good to us.
“So, we got together and said it was just time. It’s sad, because he doesn’t think it’s time,” she added. “He’s all racehorse. If you put him on the track he’s going to go out there and try, that’s just the kind of horse he is. It is what it is, but it’s very sad. I could spend another 20 years in this game and never have another horse quite like him. He’s very, very special.”
Rose Brier joined Cibelli prior to his 4-year-old season in 2013, breaking his maiden that August at Monmouth Park. He would go on to win the Bert Allen against Virginia-breds from 2014-16 and the open Henry S. Clark last April, all at Laurel. In the Clark, he set the track record for one mile on the Kelso Turf Course in 1:33.11.
In addition Rose Brier was fourth or better in six graded stakes including thirds in the 2016 and 2017 Red Bank (G3). He finished first in the Tropical Turf Handicap (G3) by 1 ¼ lengths last fall at Gulfstream Park West but was disqualified to second for interference.
“When when I got him he started out in maiden claiming ranks and just got better and better as he got older,” Cibelli said. “Apart from that, he’s just a nice horse to be around. He’s got a great personality. We’ll certainly miss him.”
Cibelli is currently seeking a forever home for Rose Brier. She said she would like to see him go to a place where he can be active rather than just retire to pasture.
“I’d like him to be somewhere where he could be useful because he’s still got a lot left in him. He just can’t race,” she said. “I’ve got a few feelers out right now and there’s people in Virginia that might be interested. I’m hoping that someone will come forward. I just want to make sure he’ll have a home where he can be useful because he’s so enjoyable. He can give someone else a lot of enjoyment.”
Fellowship Seeks Elusive Graded Win Saturday at Belmont
Jacks or Better Farm’s multiple graded stakes-placed Fellowship, based at Laurel with trainer Ken Decker, seeks his elusive first graded victory in Saturday’s Belmont Sprint Championship (G2) at Belmont Park.
Fellowship will have Hall of Fame-elect jockey Javier Castellano aboard from Post 3 in a field of seven that also includes multiple graded-stakes winners Mind Your Biscuits, Unified, Green Gratto, Awesome Slew and Tommy Macho and seven-time stakes winner Stallwalkin’ Dude.
A homebred son of Awesome of Course, Fellowship has one win from three starts this year, taking a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance by 2 ½ lengths April 16 at Laurel in his 4-year-old debut. He was seventh in the Pimlico Special (G3) May 19, run at 1 3/16 miles, and fourth in the six-furlong True North (G2) June 9.
“He was closing pretty good the other day and he ran his race. Those horses went fast and they just didn’t back up. They’re nice horses,” Decker said. “When you’re running on this level, there’s always going to be some tough horses. We were pleased with him and he came back good out of it. He [had] a little prep work and he’s ready to go back.”
Fellowship won the Florida Sire In Reality Stakes as a 2-year-old and was on the Triple Crown trail at 3, finishing third in the 2016 Holy Bull (G2), Fountain of Youth (G2) and Florida Derby (G1). He skipped the Kentucky Derby (G1) and ran eighth in the Preakness (G1) last May, and didn’t race again until April.
“Fellowship, I don’t think he was really a Derby distance kind of horse but he did hold his own against those horses and made a good account of himself. He had some time off and freshened up and come back ready,” Decker said. “He really didn’t like the way the Pimlico Special unfolded. He kind of likes to stay a little covered up and, being on the outside, he didn’t get to do that. But he showed us he does have some sprint ability when he did go seven [furlongs April 16. We tried six and thought it might have been a little short, but I think the seven is going to be real nice for him. He’s ready.”
