Injury and rehab behind him, Mena is rounding back into top form

Miguel Mena was leading rider at the 2017-2018 Fair Grounds meet when a horse leading the eighth race on March 15 broke down badly. Mena’s trailing mount hit the stricken horse and down went Mena, breaking his right heel and ankle.

The timetable for Mena’s return initially was estimated at six months, but it took Mena nearly eight to ride in a race again. He returned to action Oct. 25 at Churchill, rode 18 races at the meet there, and then headed back to New Orleans for the start of the 2018-2019 meet.

“I’m feeling better every day,” Mena said last week. “I’m trying to ride two or three a day. Hopefully I can get back on top, but it’s going to take some time. Some people want to see me before they ride me. Some people, like Al Stall, already are giving me a shot.”

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Mena is back – but not all the way back. No surgery was ever performed on the fractures because of a high infection risk, and instead Mena had a blister applied to the injury site to promote healing.

“It was a tough injury with some bad luck, and I did rehab for a very long time, four or five months.”

Doctors have told Mena the slight limp he has now might stay with him permanently. He has arthritis that bothers him when he walks, but Mena said he experiences no pain in the saddle.

Represented this meet by the agent Tim Hanisch, Mena, 32, has mainly ridden longshots. He had five mounts opening day without getting a win, but after a second-place finish with a 41-1 shot on day 2 of the meet, Nov. 16, Mena hit in race 8 with Swinging Greeley, who paid $55.80 to win. The next day, in the second race, Mena booted home Greeley’s Banker at a $41 mutuel. The horses have different trainers, but both are by the somewhat obscure Louisiana sire Greeley’s Galaxy.

Mena’s name isn’t at all obscure. But he has work to do to get back to his Fair Grounds pre-injury form.