Jockey Orozco facing months of recovery time after spill

Northern California jockey Irving Orozco faces months of recovery after sustaining broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and spinal fractures in a one-horse spill at the Sonoma county fair in Santa Rosa on Sunday.

Orozco was aboard Strength of Autism when the 3-year-old gelding fell in the stretch while racing in second. Strength of Autism was not racing near other runners when he fell.

“It happened so fast,” Orozco said. “It didn’t give me time to react. It was one of those things. Stuff like that rarely happens.

“I’m glad it wasn’t any worse.”

Orozco, 30, remains hospitalized in Santa Rosa. He said on Wednesday morning that he will not need surgery, and that the biggest issue is pain management.

“It’s going to be a slow recovery,” he said. “I’ll be able to make a full recovery.”

Strength of Autism was not injured in the spill, trainer Isidro Tamayo said on Wednesday.

“I don’t know if he stepped on himself and it made him lose his balance,” Tamayo said. “He didn’t bobble. He just went straight down. I’ve never seen anything like that happen.”

Orozco has won 48 races this year, including two stakes aboard Lammas – the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile on turf at Golden Gate Fields in April, and the $151,350 Pleasanton Mile at the Alameda county fair in Pleasanton on July 8. The $177,700 San Francisco Mile is Orozco’s richest win in a career that began in 2011 and includes 898 wins.

The spill on Sunday is Orozco’s second major accident in a little more than two years. In April 2022, he sustained a punctured lung and bruised ribs in a spill at Golden Gate Fields that left him sidelined for four months.

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