/ AFP PHOTO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / ANDY LYONS
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP)–Triple Crown-winning jockey Victor Espinoza broke a vertebra in his neck when his mount died while training at Del Mar Racetrack Sunday, but is expected to “fully recover” his agent said.
Agent Brian Beach said Mexico-born Espinoza was diagnosed with a fracture of the C-3 vertebra in his neck and a “stinger” to the left shoulder causing pain and numbness in his left arm.
“He has regained about 50 percent of the feeling already,” Beach said. “Doctors are optimistic he’ll fully recover fairly quickly.”
Beach said that Espinoza, who guided American Pharoah to the coveted Triple Crown of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in 2015, suffered no paralysis or other broken bones.
Espinoza was thrown from his horse, Kona Gold Stakes-winner Bobby Abu Dhabi, when the chestnut colt fell suddenly near the wire.
Owner Brian Trump tweeted the horse died of “sudden cardiac arrest”.
© Agence France-Presse