Irad Ortiz Jr. taken to hospital with ankle injury after being unseated

LEXINGTON, Ky. − Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. was taken to University of Kentucky Medical Center to be evaluated for a potential injury to his left ankle after he was unseated leaving the starting gate of Friday’s ninth race at Keeneland, according to his agent Steve Rushing.

Ortiz, who missed two months of riding after injuring his left foot during the post parade of a race at Saratoga on Aug. 8, was unseated when She’s Good Trouble stumbled one stride out of the starting gate of a two-turn race for maiden 2-year-old fillies. She’s Good Trouble ran the race without a rider and was ultimately caught by an outrider and did not appear to be injured.

On-site emergency medical technicians picked Ortiz up and carried him to an SUV parked just outside the starting gate. The vehicle took Ortiz to the track’s First Aid department. After a brief examination, Ortiz, sitting up and alert, was wheeled out of First-Aid on a stretcher and transported by ambulance to the nearby hospital.

When Ortiz resumed riding on the Oct. 2 opening day program at Keeneland, he told the track’s publicity team that he had suffered seven minor fractures in his left foot. At the time he was injured in Saratoga, the initial reports were that he just had significant swelling that needed to come down before he resumed riding.

Despite missing two months, Ortiz still ranks sixth in North America in wins (227) and third in purs money won ($28.3 million).

Ortiz is lined up to ride several horses in the Breeders’ Cup, Oct. 30-31, including Further Ado in the $7 million Classic, Rhetorical in the $2 million Mile, Splendora in the $2 million Distaff, Built in the $2 million Sprint, and Salahudin in the $2 million Juvenile, among others.

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