Cisneros to have first starter as trainer Thursday

CYPRESS, Calif. – A training accident in 2017 led to a career change for John Cisneros, who has his first starter as a trainer at Los Alamitos on Thursday.

Cisneros will run the 2-year-old filly Cause Why in a maiden special weight for California-breds at 5 1/2 furlongs, one of two horses he has based at the track. Both runners are owned by Huntertown Farm, the stable name of breeder Heinz Steinmann and his extended family.

In 2017, Cisneros, 61, sustained injuries in a fall during morning training and was told by doctors to stay out of the saddle.

“I broke a rib, broke my wrist,” he recalled on Sunday. “I pulled all the muscles in my shoulder. It was kind of a bad accident. I couldn’t ride.

“I got hurt, and that changed my mind. The doctor told me I shouldn’t be riding.”

Cisneros and Steinmann have a decades-long relationship through the trainer’s previous arrangement as an exercise rider and later an assistant trainer to Mike Harrington. Cisneros exercised the Steinmann-owned Swiss Yodeler, a multiple stakes winner in 1996. More recently, Cisneros was part of the Harrington team when Steinmann’s Creative Cause was the leading runner in the barn in 2012. Creative Cause was second in the Santa Anita Derby and third in the Preakness Stakes that season.

Creative Cause is the sire of Cause Why.

“It’s my first trainee, and I’m happy with the way she’s coming along,” Cisneros said. “She’s a very classy filly. The Steinmanns are very excited, too. They’ve given me an opportunity. I better do good.”