Jevian Toledo, Maryland's leading rider of 2017, is hopeful of returning to action late next month after being injured in a Jan. 21 spill during training hours at Laurel Park.
Toledo's agent, Marty Leonard, said Jan. 22 that the 23-year-old Toledo is wearing a neck brace to help with the pain from what doctors believe was whiplash along with compression fractures of the T7 and T8 vertebrae in his middle back and a punctured lung, suffered when Toledo was thrown when the horse he was working fell.
"The two vertebrae are less than 25% fractured, so he was lucky that it wasn't a more severe injury," Leonard said.
Initially taken to Howard County Hospital in Columbia, Md., Toledo was transferred to the University of Maryland Medical Center's Shock Trauma unit Sunday afternoon for a second opinion on the lung puncture, Leonard said. Toledo was released at 9:30 p.m.
Leonard said Toledo has follow-up appointments scheduled for Feb. 5 and 19, and if all goes well and he does not feel any pain, he will be cleared to ride.
A native of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Toledo topped all jockeys in Maryland with 144 wins and $4,564,961 in purse earnings in 2017, leading Laurel's calendar year-ending fall meet with 61 wins and $1.8 million in purses.
Toledo was also Maryland's leading rider in 2015 and ranked second in 2016, and owns four individual meet titles.
