Doctors told Brian Hernandez Jr. that it could be six to eight weeks until he\u2019s healthy enough to ride again, but the 39-year-old jockey told WAVE that his goal is to ride in the Breeders\u2019 Cup in just over five weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want to get back for Breeders\u2019 Cup, which is 5.5 weeks,\u201d Hernandez told WAVE. \u201cAnd that\u2019s my game plan right now, is work as hard as I can and be back for Breeders\u2019 Cup week.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the third race at Churchill Downs on Sept. 21, Hernandez was thrown from his mount, Sgt. Garcia, and suffered several serious injuries. Sgt. Garcia was humanely euthanized.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were going around the far turn there at Churchill, and the horse took a funny step, and I came off the side of him, and I landed on my back,\u201d Hernandez told WAVE. \u201cWe wear safety vests of course, but once I landed on my back, his back leg stomped down on my chest here. And it crushed all the ribs, 7 ribs, cut off the liver, and collapsed the lung partially.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was fortunate enough not to get run over by anyone else,\u201d Hernandez additionally said to WAVE.<\/p>\n
Hernandez swept the 2024 Kentucky Derby and Oaks with Mystik Dan and Thorpedo Anna, both trained by Kenny McPeek. Both runners are aiming for races at the Breeders\u2019 Cup, with reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna set to defend her Distaff title. Mystik Dan is targeting the Dirt Mile.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday morning, Sept. 24, McPeek told Fanduel TV that Flavien Prat would ride Thorpedo Anna in her final Breeders\u2019 Cup prep, the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 5, and the Breeders\u2019 Cup Distaff.<\/p>\n
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A replacement rider has yet to be named for Mystik Dan, who runs in Saturday\u2019s G2 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to see if anybody scratches out of the Lukas and see if there\u2019s any options there,\u201d McPeek told FanDuel TV. \u201cMore likely, Francisco Arrieta would ride him if they don\u2019t scratch out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more at wave3.com<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 25, 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":"Doctors told Brian Hernandez Jr. that it could be six to eight weeks until he\u2019s healthy enough to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9193,24062,9464,3004,70088,101,37639,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-160219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-breeders-cup","9":"tag-brian-hernandez","10":"tag-churchill-downs","11":"tag-racing","12":"tag-sgt-garcia","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-thorpedo-anna","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160219","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=160219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}