Eduard Rojas Fernandez, jockey at Los Alamitos, tests positive for coronavirus

Jockey Eduard Rojas Fernandez took off his mounts at the Los Alamitos evening meeting over the weekend after he tested positive for coronavirus.

Fernandez made the announcement on Twitter on Saturday afternoon.

“I will be out for weeks,” he wrote in Spanish. “I took the test and I came out positive.”

He later contacted the stewards to inform them of the positive.

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Fernandez was scheduled to ride all three nights of the evening meeting, where he specializes in riding lower-level Thoroughbreds. Fernandez told his agent, Neil Bricks, over the weekend that he did not have acute symptoms.

Fernandez is the fifth rider to compete at Los Alamitos this month to contract coronavirus. Jockeys Victor Espinoza, Martin Garcia, Flavien Prat, and Luis Saez rode the daytime Thoroughbred program at Los Alamitos on July 4 and have since been sidelined.

Garcia, who had one mount at Los Alamitos on July 3, later rode at Prairie Meadows. Saez later rode at Belmont Park, Indiana Grand and Keeneland before he was taken off his mounts during the Friday program at Keeneland. Prat rode at Del Mar on Friday and Keeneland on Saturday.

Espinoza took a coronavirus test on Friday, which revealed the positive. Prat took a test on Sunday that was positive.

Fernandez has won 49 races from 414 mounts in a career that began in 2017. He has ridden primarily at California tracks and has won 15 races from 105 mounts this year.