Jockey Eric Cancel out at least six weeks with back injury

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Eric Cancel will be sidelined from riding for at least six weeks after sustaining a fracture in his vertebrae as the result of a spill Saturday morning during training hours at Belmont Park.

Cancel was unseated when a horse he was on for trainer Todd Pletcher fell while galloping out after a workout. The horse was down for several minutes before eventually getting up and being vanned off. That horse was deemed to be okay, according to assistant trainer Byron Hughes.

Cancel was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where an MRI revealed the fracture. Cancel was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon.

Blake Dutrow, agent for Cancel, said doctors “don’t think it’s that serious. It’s a minor fracture that should heal on its own within six weeks.”

Cancel had five mounts on Saturday’s Aqueduct card, four of which finished second including Vulcan’s Forge, ridden by Junior Alvarado, in the Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan Stakes.

Cancel was tied for seventh at the Aqueduct winter meet with five wins from 34 mounts. He won the Damon Runyon Stakes with the promising New York-bred 3-year-old Empire Line.