Sidelined Hernandez to Resume Riding at Woodbine July 1
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Photo: Michael Burns
Jockey Rafael Hernandez celebrates after winning the 2019 Breeders' Stakes on Tone Broke at Woodbine
Canadian-based rider Rafael Hernandez has been cleared to resume riding July 1 after being injured in a June 12 spill at Woodbine, agent Tony Esposito tweeted June 23.
The jockey had initially been expected to miss three to five weeks after unseated in the last race at Woodbine June 12 when his mount, Super Jade , clipped heels and fell in a maiden claiming race. Hernandez rode the next day but then was sidelined after a medical check-up.
Hernandez rode three winners from 19 mounts during opening weekend at the track June 12-13. Emma-Jayne Wilson currently leads the Woodbine standings with eight winners.
The injury cost Hernandez the mount on Entourage Stable's Pink Lloyd , a seven-time Sovereign Award winner and the 2017 Canadian Horse of the Year, in the June 20 Jacques Cartier Stakes (G3). The veteran sprinter finished second in his 9-year-old debut under Daisuke Fukumoto.
Last year's leading rider at Woodbine, Hernandez, a native of Puerto Rico, won his first Sovereign Award in 2020 after notching a meet-leading 17 stakes victories. Among those was a victory in the E. P. Taylor Stakes (G1T) on Peter Brant, Mrs. M. V. Magnier, and Mrs. Paul Shanahan's Etoile .
He rode at Turfway Park earlier this year following the conclusion of the 2020 Woodbine season, winning with seven of 111 mounts there.