Jockey Corey Nakatani could miss the remainder of the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita, including the two-day Breeders' Cup festival, with a fractured right clavicle suffered in a spill in the Morvich Handicap (gr. IIIT) on the opening day of the meet Sept. 24.
“It’s a new injury and a clean break,” said his agent, Ron Ebanks, on Sept. 26. “Doctors put him in a figure eight to promote healing and they’ll see him in three weeks for further evaluation, but he’s expected to be out from three to five weeks.”
A broken right clavicle after a training mishap at Hollywood Park earlier this year put the 37-year-old Nakatani on the sidelines for six weeks. He returned to action in early March.
Nakatani was aboard Easy on the Eyes, who clipped heels with another horse and went down just after the start of the Morvich on the hillside turf course.
The timing of the injury is unfortunate for Nakatani, who had four mounts in grade I races on Oak Tree's major Breeders' Cup preview program Sept. 27.
He'll be replaced by Tyler Baze aboard Spring House in the Clement L. Hirsch Turf Championship; by Rene Douglas on In Summation in the Ancient Title Stakes; by Alex Solis aboard Magic Roberta in the Oak Leaf Stakes; and by Jose Valdivia Jr. on Vacare in the Yellow Ribbons Stakes.
Corey Nakatani
Benoit