Jockey Paco Lopez was taken by ambulance to Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, N.J., for X-rays and evaluation after suffering an apparent right elbow injury following a fall in the 10th race at Monmouth Park Aug. 8, according to Dr. Angelo Chinnici, the track's medical director.
Lopez, the meet's leading rider whose 31 winners at the meet are more than double that of his next closest competitor, went down after his mount, Pretendant, appeared to clip heels in tight quarters midway through the final turn of the 1 1/16-mile race. Pretendant was in the middle of a condensed pack when the incident occurred, unseating Lopez around the quarter pole.
The stewards conducted an inquiry but made no change to the order of finish in which favored Beach Traffic was the runaway winner.
Lopez, seeking a seventh riding title at Monmouth Park, also leads all riders in earnings this meet with his mounts making $1,378,480. He has been riding Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) prospect Ny Traffic this summer, including to a runner-up finish in the TVG.com Haskell Stakes (G1) during the Monmouth meet.
He was one of at least two riders to be injured in the Mid-Atlantic region on Saturday.
Jockey Tais Lyapustina was unseated during Laurel Park's second race when her mount, 3-year-old filly My Lila, broke down in midstretch while on the lead and drifted inside, avoiding other horses but catapulting the rider over the inner rail. Lyapustina was taken to a local hospital for observation and My Lila was euthanized, according to Laurel publicity.
