Belmont Park: Dominguez takes off mounts following Friday spill

ELMONT, N.Y. - Ramon Dominguez, the nation’s leading rider in wins in 2011, took off his nine scheduled mounts Saturday at Belmont Park due to stiffness in his neck as a result of a spill he was involved in during the running of Friday’s sixth race.

Dominguez is hoping to return on Sunday, according to his agent, Steve Rushing.

“He feels fine, no headaches or anything, it’s just his neck is pretty stiff,” Rushing said Saturday morning. “He felt all right last night, but when you’re in a spill like that you’re going to feel worse the next day.”

Rushing said Dominguez was scheduled to work the multiple Grade 1 winner Get Stormy on Sunday morning and hoped to ride Sunday’s 10-race card as well.

Dominguez was thrown from his mount Ms Stilleto in Friday’s sixth when he was bumped by and then appeared to clip heels with Starjetta. Dominguez hit the ground hard and rolled several times before getting up on his own and walking into an awaiting ambulance.

After visiting the track’s first-aid department, Dominguez was taken to North Shore University Hospital where X-rays and a CAT scan were negative. He was released from the hospital at around 8 p.m. Friday.

Dominguez, who won the Eclipse Award as North America’s leading rider in 2010, leads the country in wins this year with 146. His earnings of $6,358,792 are second in the country, about $300,000 less than John Velazquez.

Dominguez, the leading rider on the New York Racing Association circuit the last two years, is third in the jockey standings at the current Belmont meet with 23 winners, one behind Javier Castellano and Cornelio Velasquez.