Apprentice Ortega exercising horses as he works way back from injury
ARCADIA, Calif. – Apprentice jockey Cesar Ortega has resumed exercising horses at Los Alamitos after suffering an injury to his pancreas in a seven-horse spill at Del Mar in August, according to his agent, Patty Sterling.
Sterling said at Santa Anita on Monday that Ortega does not have a timeline for a return to riding.
“He’s back on horses,” Sterling said. “He’s a ways off. It’s taken longer to recover.”
Ortega underwent surgery on a lacerated pancreas in late August and was told at the time that he would need several months of recovery. Ortega was initially thought to have avoided a serious injury, but experienced complications in the days following the accident and was given a more serious diagnosis.
Ortega, 26, has won 61 races – 19 in Quarter Horse or mixed-breed races and 42 on Thoroughbreds in a career that began at the Los Alamitos evening meeting in 2020. In June and July, Ortega finished second in the jockey standings at the two-week daytime Thoroughbred meeting at Los Alamitos.
On Aug. 22 at Del Mar, Ortega was riding at the back of a sprint for maiden claimers when a horse well in front of him clipped heels with a rival, causing one horse to fall and four others to be brought down. Ortega and jockey Emily Ellingwood were unseated from their mounts.