Jockey Flores Injures His Back in a One-Horse Spill at Del Mar

DEL MAR — Jockey David Flores suffered a chipped disk in his back and separated a shoulder in a spill during Friday’s fifth race here.

Flores, 29, was listed in serious condition in the intensive care unit of Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. His agent, Jim Pegram, confirmed his injuries.

“He’s stable,” said Pegram, who speculated Flores could be sidelined from six to eight weeks.

Flores, who had ridden five winners in the first nine days of the meeting, was injured when his mount, a tiring Finder’s Fortune, clipped the heels of Lissitki, ridden by apprentice Ryan Barber, and fell in the stretch of the one-mile turf race.

Some onlookers thought Finder’s Fortune may have kicked the jockey when the gelding scrambled up. The 8-year-old, trained by Darrell Vienna, appeared uninjured.

Flores, 29, has developed into one of the top riders on the circuit and was scheduled to ride Anet for trainer Bob Baffert, in Sunday’s $1-million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.

The Mexican-born jockey is also the regular rider for Siphon,on whom he won the Santa Anita Handicap earlier this year and the 1996 Hollywood Gold Cup.