Geroux's injury stalls momentum he had coming into Breeders' Cup season
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A long stay in the infirmary will give a person plenty of time for reflection. Just ask Florent Geroux.
On one hand, Geroux could give infinite thanks that things hadn’t turned out worse when Flip Flop Freak, his mount in the fourth race on Sept. 10 at Churchill Downs, broke down badly at the half-mile pole during a 2-year-old maiden sprint. On the other, he found himself stuck in a hospital stay that dragged on considerably longer than expected.
“Over a week – it’s not so fun,” Geroux said Tuesday morning. “Lying by yourself in a hospital bed at night, you think about how dangerous this sport is. Safety has to be the first priority.”
Geroux finally went home on Sept. 20. He has six broken ribs – it hurts to move, and sometimes it hurts to not move. He said he sleeps, or tries to, at a 45-degree angle. Fluid in Geroux’s chest occasioned the extended stay at University of Louisville Hospital. Doctors wouldn’t release him until all the fluid had drained and scans came back clean.
Geroux, 40, had a worse accident in October 2007, when his mount at Keeneland clipped heels and went down, breaking Geroux’s wrist and fracturing two vertebrae. This time, no other horses were involved. Geroux was pressing the pace with Flip Flop Freak, the 2-1 favorite and a colt Geroux had worked throughout the summer for trainer Brian Lynch and the prominent owner Flying Dutchmen.
“In a blink, the horse was just down,” Geroux said.
Of course, Geroux gives thanks for escaping with a relatively modest injury that just needs time to heal. Still, the setback came at an especially inopportune moment.
Geroux, keep in mind, won two Breeders’ Cup Distaffs and a Kentucky Oaks riding Monomoy Girl; won the Kentucky Derby – albeit via disqualification – on Mandaloun; and won the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Gun Runner. In 2017, he started riding regularly for Brad Cox, who trained Monomoy Girl and Mandaloun, and continued doing so through most of 2025. Geroux rode 217 winners in 2016, topped $21 million in purses during 2018, and in 2021 won 186 races and more than $20 million.
But Geroux slid last year. He rode 72 winners, his lowest total since 2010, and earned $10.4 million in purses, his lowest haul since 2016. Cox had generally turned elsewhere, to Irad Ortiz Jr. in particular, while Geroux tried to find his footing. Last December, he rode on a temporary license in Japan. In January, rather than returning to regular winter quarters at Fair Grounds, Geroux moved his tack to Santa Anita while changing agents, from John Panagot to Matt Nakatani. Panagot began booking mounts for Geroux in 2022, replacing Doug Bredar, who had been Geroux’s agent for 12 years.
Geroux went 11-89 during the Santa Anita winter meeting but, more importantly, forged a bond with trainer Bob Baffert, who opened a year-round Kentucky string this past spring. Geroux became Baffert’s main Kentucky jockey and has gone 17-50 on Baffert horses this year. He rode the Baffert-trained 2-year-old Salahudin to wins in an Ellis Park maiden race and the Ellis Park Juvenile, and was booked to ride Saludin on Sept. 12 in the Iroquois Stakes; Jose Ortiz rode the colt to victory.
Cox started using Geroux again, too, especially after Ortiz got hurt and went to the sidelines in August, and Geroux had steady business from Lynch and others.
“It’s never a good time, but Bob being back in Kentucky and us having a great year together so far,” Geroux said. “Now with September meet started, I had a lot of horses getting ready. I spent a lot of time in airports, and over the summer driving back and forth to Ellis [Park] to get some horses ready. It was time to get paid.”
Geroux’s accident was bad, but not as bad as the wreck in the second race on Sept. 19 at Churchill. Another 2-year-old, the first-time starter Lutkehnaus, suffered a catastrophic foreleg injury much the same as Flip Flop Freak’s at nearly the same spot on the racetrack.
“My fall, all right, it happens, but when it happens again with a 2-year-old that never raced – you’re hoping it’s a coincidence,” Geroux said. “You feel more protected then ever now with all the scratches and vet checks.”
Geroux has no idea when he’ll return to race riding. It won’t be several months, but Geroux doubts he’ll be back in time for the Breeders’ Cup.
“It’s going to take a few weeks. I think you know when your body tells you,” he said.
The 2007 injuries also came at a very poor time. Geroux had only recently come to America from France and was riding for trainer Patrick Biancone, hoping to establish himself on the Kentucky circuit. Instead, he went back to France to heal and wound up in Chicago upon his return.
Geroux struggled. He went 17-206 in 2008, and even as late as 2011, after he had hired Bredar in 2010, Geroux was 12th leading rider at the Arlington meet, 27-352, a 7 percent strike rate. His rise in prominence came unexpectedly and rapidly. Five years later, he found himself piloting Gun Runner to a third-place finish in the Derby.
This is a setback – a tragedy, through the lens of the deceased horse -- and Geroux still has a lot more time for thinking rather than riding. He’s been down before, and he’ll be back again.
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