More surgery for Eibar Coa

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Eibar Coa was scheduled to undergo surgery on Monday at Memorial Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., to repair a broken wrist suffered in a spill that occurred following Friday’s sixth race at Gulfstream Park.

Coa, who went down when his mount Lady Chesterfield stumbled over the fallen Precious Lady as the field was pulling up past the finish line, suffered a broken C4 vertebra in his neck as a result of the accident. According to his agent and family spokesman Tito Fuentes, Coa has regained some movement in his upper body and has feelings in his lower extremities but still has no movement in his lower body.

Coa underwent nearly six hours of surgery on Saturday morning to repair the front of his C4 vertebra and was scheduled to undergo additional surgery to repair and stabilize the back of the vertebrae later this week.

Paco Lopez, who was aboard Precious Lady, suffered a chip in his elbow and considerable bruising as a result of the spill and took off all his mounts over the weekend. He was scheduled to see a specialist regarding his injury at 12:30 p.m. on Monday.

“Paco’s climbing the walls and ready to go back to ride, but we won’t make any decisions until after he sees the doctor later today,” his agent, Cory Moran, said late Monday morning.

Lopez, the meet’s leading rider, is named to ride seven of the nine races on Wednesday’s program.

The accident occurred when Precious Lady appeared to clip heels and fell while pulling up shortly after finishing second behind Omi’s Vindication in the five-furlong maiden race on the grass. Coa’s mount, Lady Chesterfield, was unable to avoid Precious Lady and fell, tossing Coa hard to the ground.