Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. suffered serious injuries in a spill on Sunday in the third race at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.<\/p>\n
Hernandez was riding Sgt. Garcia for trainer Kenny McPeek in a $30,000 maiden claiming race for 2-year-olds going six furlongs when the Audible colt sustained an injury nearing the five-sixteenths pole, throwing Hernandez to the ground. Sgt. Garcia, a Craig B. Singer homebred making his first start in the maiden claiming ranks after two off-the-board finishes in maiden special weight contests at Colonial Downs in Virginia, was transported off the track by equine ambulance, according to the Equibase chart. His current status is not known.<\/p>\n
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Hernandez was taken to University of Louisville Hospital. The 39-year-old Louisiana native\u2019s wife, Jamie Hernandez, posted on social media Sunday evening that her husband is in the intensive care unit, where he is being treated for \u201cseven broken ribs, punctured lung, lacerated liver with a bleed that was repaired via procedure\u201d and \u201csome bleeding they are monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The injury comes less than a week before Hernandez was to ride Mystik Dan \u2013 the McPeek-trained colt who gave the rider his first Kentucky Derby victory in 2024 \u2013 in the Grade 2, $500,000 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs Sept. 27. Hernandez breezed the Goldencents colt<\/a> at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, going a half-mile in :47.60 in his final serious prep for the race.<\/p>\n Hernandez is also the regular rider of 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, who is scheduled to make her next start at Keeneland in the G1, $650,000 Spinster Stakes on Oct. 5. Thorpedo Anna won the 2024 Kentucky Oaks, giving Hernandez a rare Oaks-Derby double in the same year.<\/p>\n Hernandez, Eclipse Award winner as outstanding apprentice jockey in 2004, is coming off the best year of his career, topping $20 million in mount earnings and ranking sixth nationally. His $13.3 million in mount earnings in 2025 puts him eighth in the national rankings. He was named 2024 recipient of the Mike Venezia Memorial Award from the New York Racing Association. The award is given annually to a rider who exemplifies the extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship demonstrated throughout the career of Mike Venezia, who died in a racing accident in 1988.<\/p>\n The son of a jockey who saw his father sustain injuries during his career, Hernandez once told the Louisville Courier-Journal, \u201cI kind of grew up knowing the dangers of (horse racing).”<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cJockey life isn\u2019t for the faint of heart,\u201d Jamie Hernandez said in her social media post Sunday night. \u201cPhysically and mentally draining. Hug your loved ones tight. Please say extra prayers for Brian tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 22, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. suffered serious injuries in a spill on Sunday in the third race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[24062,9464,9395,70087,16199,50874,11142,3004,70088,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-152652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-brian-hernandez","9":"tag-churchill-downs","10":"tag-claiming-race","11":"tag-jamie-hernandez","12":"tag-kentucky-derby","13":"tag-ky","14":"tag-louisville","15":"tag-racing","16":"tag-sgt-garcia","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}