Laurel: Cintron will miss six to eight weeks with broken jaw

Jockey Alex Cintron is scheduled to have surgery Sunday or Monday to repair a broken jaw and other fractures to his face resulting from a spill that involved three horses in the sixth race at Laurel Park on Friday. He is expected to be sidelined six to eight weeks, according to his agent, Mark Mace.

Cintron was aboard Midnight Music in the $35,000 claiming race when the horse broke down, throwing Cintron hard to the ground. Miner's Quest, who was racing behind Midnight Music, stumbled over the fallen horse and somersaulted his rider, Christian Santiago Reyes, to the track. Livonzin, with jockey Abel Castellano up, jumped the fallen horses and stayed on his feet.

Cintron was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in downtown Baltimore, where CAT scans of his head and neck were negative, Mace said. Cintron broke his jaw in three different spots and had other multiple fractures to his face, according to Mace.

Reyes was treated at Laurel by Harry Harris, medical director for the Maryland Jockey Club, for an abrasion to his knee.

Midnight Music was euthanized. Miner’s Quest ran off but was quickly captured.

Cintron was tied for sixth in the Laurel jockey standings with 21 wins as of Saturday morning. One of Cintron's scheduled mounts for Saturday, Who's In Town, won the $100,000 Safely Kept Stakes.

Cintron rode 47 Thoroughbred winners, more than any other rider, at Delaware Park's 2014 meet, and was second in the overall standings.

Cintron began riding in 2008. He has 598 Thoroughbred wins and mount earnings of $16.5 million.