Maryland jockey Toledo released from hospital

Jockey Jevian Toledo was released from the University of Maryland Medical Center’s shock/trauma unit Sunday night after being injured in a Laurel Park training accident that morning.

Toledo was working a Jamie Ness-trained horse who fell. The horse got to his feet after the incident and ran back to the barn.

X-rays taken at the Howard County Hospital in Columbia, Md., revealed compression fractures of the T7 and T8 vertebrae in Toledo’s mid-back region. He also was found to have a punctured lung.

He was transferred to the University of Maryland Medical Center to get a second opinion on his lung and to have his condition monitored. He was released at 9:30 p.m.

According to Toledo’s agent, Marty Leonard, the vertebrae are less than 25 percent fractured and the lung puncture is small. Toledo is wearing a neck brace for pain relief and has follow-up doctor appointments scheduled for Feb. 5 and Feb. 19. If he is pain free at that point, it is expected his doctors will clear him to resume riding.

Toledo, 23, led all riders at the Maryland Jockey Club tracks of Laurel and Pimlico by wins in 2017 and 2015. He has won four meet riding titles in Maryland, including the last three fall meets at Laurel.

Since he began riding in 2013, Toledo has won 781 races and his mounts have earned more than $22 million in purses. He has a lifetime win average of 16 percent.

This has been a difficult year for some of Maryland’s best known riders.

Trevor McCarthy, the leading rider in Maryland in 2014 and 2016, dislocated a shoulder at Monmouth Park in May and just recently resumed riding. He is now based at Aqueduct.

Victor Carrasco, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice rider of 2013 is sidelined after breaking a leg at Delaware Park in September.