DANIEL CENTENO JOINS LIST OF INJURED JOCKS

Alwaysmining
Jockey Daniel Centeno gives Alwaysmining a little love after winning the 2019 Private Terms Stakes. Photo by Dottie Miller.

The hits just keep on coming for mid-Atlantic jockeys.

In recent weeks, Sheldon Russell, Victor Carrasco, and Rosario Montanez all suffered injuries that will put them on the shelf, with Montanez suffering the most serious of the group. On Thursday, Feargal Lynch was taken to the hospital, unable to catch his breath after being unseated during a race.

Also on Thursday, jockey Daniel Centeno said on Twitter that he would be out at least six weeks after suffering “a small fracture in my right ankle.”

The accident occurred in the third race at Delaware Park, a maiden special weight sprint for two year-olds. Centeno’s mount, the Tim Salzman-trained Ladneedsahandler, was “very fractious” in the gate, according to the chart, and ended up injuring the rider.

Centeno was off for the rest of the day, losing four mounts Wednesday and another three at Delaware Park on Thursday. He had planned to ride at Colonial Downs during that meet, which begins July 27. Centeno had been named to ride eight horses on that track’s opening day.

Centeno, a 48-year-old native of Caracas, Venezuela, has won 2,976 North American races in his career while posting purse earnings of nearly $60 million. He has won seven graded stakes in his career, including the 2009 Tampa Bay Derby aboard Musket Man and the 2014 edition of that race with Ring Weekend. He began his career in his native country before permanently shifting his tack to the U.S. in 2003.

Locally, he enjoyed perhaps his best success in teaming up with Alwaysmining in 2018 and 2019. That runner, trained by Kelly Rubley, won five consecutive Laurel Park stakes with Centeno aboard, a streak that came to an end when finishing 11th in last year’s Grade 1 Preakness Stakes.

Centeno struck an optimistic tone in the aftermath of the injury. “I can’t complain,” he tweeted. “Could be worse.”

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