Jockeys Luis Quinonez and Jareth Loveberry sustained injuries this weekend ahead of the final week of Oaklawn Park's 2018 live racing meet.
Quinonez, Oaklawn's leading rider in 2007, is scheduled to see a specialist today to determine the extent of a back injury suffered before Saturday's second race, his agent, Monty Penney, said Sunday morning.
Penney said Quinonez sustained a "compression fracture" of his "T4" vertebra when Siblyline reared in the gate and unseated the jockey.
Quinonez was able to move his extremities, but he was transported by ambulance to CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs for treatment before being released later Saturday, operations director Jason Milligan said.
Quinonez, 51, is among the winningest riders in Oaklawn history with 582, including nine this year.
Penney also represents Loveberry, who was injured during training hours Sunday morning when his mount stumbled and fell leaving the starting gate. Loveberry was transported by ambulance to CHI St. Vincent after sustaining an injury to his left arm, Milligan said.
Penney said Loveberry was being fitted with a cast after suffering a "cracked forearm."
Loveberry has been the regular rider of multiple stakes winner Amy's Challenge, who is scheduled to make her next start in Friday's Grade 3 $400,000 Fantasy Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Trainer Mac Robertson said Thursday it "looks like" Hall of Famer Mike Smith would ride Amy's Challenge in the Fantasy.
Loveberry has 11 victories at the meet.
Oaklawn is scheduled for four days of live racing this week, beginning on Wednesday. The Racing Festival of the South is scheduled to begin with the $150,000 Bachelor Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters on Thursday and continue through the Grade 1 $1 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday.
Oaklawn's five-time defending riding champion Ricardo Santana Jr. recorded his 996th career North American victory in Saturday's third race aboard favored Russell Cave ($6.40) for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization.
Santana's total is based on results in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, according to Equibase.
Santana, 25, has all but clinched his sixth consecutive Oaklawn riding title, with a meet-high 58 victories at the end of racing on Saturday. David Cabrera was second with 39 following a double Saturday, the 50th day of the 55-day meeting.
Asmussen has a meet-high 38 victories, nine more than runner-up Robertino Diodoro, as he nears his ninth Oaklawn training title since 2007. Asmussen has 7,979 career North American victories to rank second all time, according to Equibase.
Alex Canchari moved into a tie for sixth place with Gary Stevens in Oaklawn's jockey standings Saturday with a victory aboard Glacken's Ghost in the $100,000 Arkansas Breeders' Stakes over a sloppy track.
"He's just a really nice horse," Canchari said. "He puts his head down and he runs in dirt off of the dirt, it doesn't matter. You can put him wherever, on the lead or behind the other horses, he just does whatever you ask him to. I am lucky to get to ride a horse like that."
Canchari said he will be based at Indiana Grand following the Oaklawn meeting. After the 2017 Oaklawn meeting, Canchari rode regularly at his home track, Canterbury Park in suburban Minneapolis, where he won 50 races to rank third in the standings.
Canchari said Indiana Grand's lengthy meet -- scheduled dates are April 17-Nov. 7 -- appealed to him. He said its location will allow him to ride at Churchill Downs, Keeneland and Ellis Park during dark days.
"It's a longer meet over there and it is more opportunity to get exposure with the Kentucky circuit, too, since I'm going to ride both circuits," Canchari said.
Canchari said he will be represented by veteran Jimmy McNerney, track announcer at Ellis Park and Turfway Park in Kentucky.
Canchari had 23 victories and $1,263,009 in purse earning in this year's meet following racing on Saturday.
Sports on 04/09/2018