Espinoza forced to watch Pacific Classic mount from sidelines

DEL MAR, Calif. – Victor Espinoza was supposed to be riding Accelerate in the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic on Saturday at Del Mar, but instead he’s forced to be an interested observer, watching the meet’s championship race while continuing to recuperate from a nasty accident nearly four weeks ago. Espinoza fractured the transverse process of his C-3 vertebra, putting him indefinitely on the sidelines.

“The hardest thing I’ve been through,” Espinoza said recently at his home just east of the track.

Espinoza is progressing well. This week, doctors gave him the green light to increase his physical therapy to three times a week from twice a week the past two weeks. He is, to borrow a basketball phrase, trusting the process.

“I have to get healthy first before I can think about anything else,” he said. “I don’t want to come back too soon and have a setback.”

Espinoza, 46, was injured when Bobby Abu Dhabi suffered what is believed to be a fatal cardiac event during a workout on the morning of July 22. Espinoza said the force with which he hit the ground so traumatized the nerves in his body that feeling only gradually returned limb by limb. He said he still occasionally has sensitivity on his forearms to something as innocuous as being grazed by a bedsheet.

Espinoza must constantly wear a brace that immobilizes his neck and cradles his lower jaw, preventing him from turning his head from side to side. He will have to wear that for at least three more weeks. He has to sleep on his back, something he doesn’t do when healthy. Espinoza said he’s fine walking up the stairs of his two-story home, but has to be cautious going down them. He is driven to and from his therapy sessions, and on days he does not have therapy he takes slow walks in the neighborhood.

When Espinoza was first to be released from the hospital following the accident, he insisted on going to in-patient therapy for a few days.

“It was the best thing I did,” Espinoza said.

Since returning home, he has round-the-clock care that helps with his therapy and meal preparation. Two of his brothers, Leo and the former jockey Jose, have stayed with him. His routine has been disciplined and Spartan. He only leaves the house to go on walks and to go to therapy. And his race watching has been limited to critiquing his nephew, the apprentice jockey Assael, who lives with Espinoza during the meet here.

Espinoza said he was contemplating coming to the track Saturday, but said he wouldn’t decide until that morning. Whenever he comes out, people like Accelerate’s trainer, John Sadler – who has been in touch regularly with Espinoza – will be happy to see him.

“We’re disappointed to lose him this weekend because he knows the horse so well,” Sadler said, “but thank God he’s okay. It looks like he’s going to be fine. He’s a tough kid. He’ll bounce back.”