Jockey Tiago Pereira likely out eight weeks with facial injuries following Del Mar spill

DEL MAR, Calif. - Jockey Tiago Pereira suffered facial injuries in a one-horse spill at Del Mar on Saturday and is scheduled to undergo surgery on Sunday at a San Diego-area hospital, according to his agent, Craig Stephen.

Stephen said Pereira is likely to be sidelined “for at least eight weeks.”

The incident occurred on the turn of the fifth race, an allowance race at five furlongs on turf. Pereira was aboard Origami, who appeared to clip heels with Border Control, who was racing in front of Origami.

Origami fell, unseating Pereira, who appeared to be struck by Special Look, who was racing alongside Origami.

Pereira was placed on a stretcher by ambulance personnel and taken to a hospital. Origami was vanned off, but was not injured, according to trainer Doug O’Neill.

Stephen said Pereira sustained injuries to an eye socket and bones on his jaw line.

“He has several broken bones on the right side of his face,” Stephen said.

Pereira, 48, has won 42 races this year and has become established among the leading riders in Southern California in the last decade. A native of Brazil, Pereira has won 772 races in the United States.

At the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that ended in April, Pereira won 28 races to rank in a tie for sixth in the jockey standings. At the Santa Anita spring meeting from mid-April to mid-June, Pereira tied for eighth with 11 wins. He won six races at the three-week Los Alamitos meeting that ended on July 6, finishing in a tie for third in the rider standings.

Pereira, who began riding in 1993, has ridden in several countries and won such races as the $10 million Dubai World Cup on Gloria de Campeao in the United Arab Emirates in 2010.

In California, Pereira’s major wins include the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Tripoli in 2021, the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes on Macadamia at Santa Anita in 2023, and the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes on Katonah at Santa Anita last December.

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