Brian Hernandez Jr Out Six to Eight Weeks After Churchill Spill

[Wandering Eyes]

There's never a good time for a spill, but the one Sunday at Churchill Downs that landed Brian Hernandez Jr. in the intensive care unit at the University of Louisville Hospital could not have come at a worse time. Hernandez sustained seven broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a liver laceration that was treated by a minor surgical procedure.

The doctors have told Hernandez he should expect to be out six to eight weeks. That means he will not be able to ride Mystik Dan (Goldencents) in Saturday's GII Lukas Classic at Churchill or Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) in the Oct. 5 GI Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. Both horses are trained by Kenny McPeek. When reached Monday by text, McPeek said he had not yet decided who would take over for Hernandez. A possible substitute could be his brother, Colby Hernandez

“I am sore, of course,” Hernandez said Monday when reached at the hospital. “I'm just laying in the hospital bed now. They did a little small surgery on my liver last night, but we still have the seven broken ribs. They're going to do a surgery on the ribs [Tuesday] and, hopefully, that will be something that will get me going in the right direction. The doctors are saying between six and eight weeks. We'll know more here in the next few days after we do the surgery on the ribs. That's when we'll have a whole lot better idea of when we can get back.”

With just five weeks to go before the Breeders' Cup, it appears that Hernandez will not be able to ride in that event either.

Hernandez was aboard Sgt. Garcia (Audible) in the maiden race for $30,000 claimers when the horse injured one of his front legs near the 5/16th pole and threw Hernandez to track. Sgt. Garcia was euthanized.

“Any time you're dealing with a profession where an ambulance follows you around the track proves the point that it's a pretty dangerous job,” Hernandez said. “Riding-wise you know that going into it, so you have to keep that in the back of your mind. At the same time yesterday sitting there in the back of the ambulance, at one point you're saying I don't ever want to ever do this again. The next second, you're thinking 'When can I come back? I have all these good horses to ride.' You start preparing to get back out there and you try to miss as few days as possible.”

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