Mena sidelined four weeks with collarbone fracture

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Miguel Mena will miss the upcoming meets at Kentucky Downs and Churchill Downs when sidelined about four weeks after fracturing his right collarbone in a post-parade accident prior to the fifth race Sunday at Ellis Park in western Kentucky.

Mena said he was warming up Paint the Moon prior to the starter-allowance race when the 5-year-old gelding suddenly propped and threw him to the dirt, causing the injury. Paint the Moon wound up finishing fourth at 27-1 under a replacement rider.

Mena, 28, is in his 10th year as a regular on the Kentucky circuit. He enjoyed a particularly strong 2014-15 winter meet at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, sweeping three graded 3-year-old stakes aboard International Star and finishing in a tie for second in the jockeys’ standings with 72 wins. This spring and summer at Churchill and Ellis, his business had slumped somewhat, as he notched a combined 20 wins from 246 starts.

Mena said Tuesday his injury is being treated by orthopedic specialist Dr. Ray Shea in Louisville and that he is hopeful of being back in action well before the Oct. 30-31 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland.

“Hopefully, by the start of the meet” on Oct. 2, he said.