It appears the spill that jockey Julien Leparoux took May 14 in Pimlico’s Black-Eyed Susan (gr. II) was more serious than initially believed.
“He has a compression fracture of the T-8 in the middle of his back,” said Steve Bass, Leparoux’s agent, in a statement. “He had an MRI done Tuesday (May 18) and that’s when the fracture was discovered. He will be out a week and a half to two weeks.”
Currently the second-leading rider at the meet with 13 victories, Leparoux was hurt May 14 when his mount in the Black-Eyed Susan, Diva Delite, clipped heels approaching the far turn and threw Leparoux. In spite of that spill, Leparoux honored all of his commitments May 15 at Pimlico and May 16 at Churchill Downs, where he rode two winners.
“Julien was still sore when he got back here and when we went to the doctor he didn’t think it was anything major,” Bass said. “I told him it was something that needed to be tended to before it turned out to be something that could affect him long term.
“It is the first time he has been hurt and I hope it is the last.”
Meanwhile, leading rider Calvin Borel was off all of his mounts May 19 because of an eye infection.
“He is off today and maybe Friday (May 21), but he hopes to be back Saturday (May 22),” Borel’s agent Jerry Hissam said in a release.
Borel, who has ridden 22 winners at Churchill this spring, has a huge lead in the jockey standings in his bid for the first Spring Meet leading rider title. He has won one Fall title outright and shared two others.
Borel has 995 victories beneath the Twin Spires and trails only Pat Day (2,482) in Churchill Downs triumphs.
