Jockey Victor Espinoza has been seriously injured during training, due to the fatal heart attack and collapse of his horse at Del Mar racetrack.
The horse Bobby Abu Dhabi suffered an apparent fatal heart attack during a workout Sunday morning, racetrack officials reported in a statement.
Espinoza was thrown off the horse, then lay motionless for several minutes before being fitted with a neck brace and taken by ambulance to a hospital.
Agent Brian Beach said the 46-year-old Hall of Fame jockey suffered a fractured vertebra in his neck and a stinger to the left shoulder and arm. He said Espinoza will remain in the hospital overnight, but doctors expect a full recovery.
Beach said Espinoza, who guided American Pharoah to the Triple Crown in 2015, suffered no paralysis or other broken bones.
"It's all good for now. It looks like we dodged a bullet," Beach said in a statement to Del Mar track officials.
"He has regained about 50 percent of the feeling already. Doctors are optimistic he'll fully recover fairly quickly."
The fallen colt was 4-year-old Bobby Abu Dhabi, who was training for the upcoming Bing Crosby Stakes at the track. He was owned by Rockingham Ranch and trained by Peter Miller and had several victories to his name, including his first race at Del Mar in 2016.
“We lost our boy, BOBBY ABU DHABI to a sudden cardiac arrest on the track,” Rockingham Ranch co-owner Brian Trump tweeted. “While we are deeply saddened and heartbroken by this loss our thoughts are currently with HOF jockey Victor Espinoza. Please keep him in your prayers."
Espinoza, a native of Mexico, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2017. He has won at Churchill Downs while riding War Emblem (2002), California Chrome (2014) and American Pharoah (2015), and he has won three times at the Preakness Stakes and once at the Belmont Stakes.
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