Ramon Dominguez, expected to be honored as the nation’s top jockey at Saturday night’s annual Eclipse Awards dinner at Gulfstream Park, is in stable condition at Jamaica Hospital with a fractured skull, according to reports, after a spill in Friday’s seventh race at Aqueduct.
Riding Convocation, the 4-5 in the field of eight, Dominguez was threading his way through the pack when Convocation clipped the heels of eventual winner Sovereign Default, stumbled and fell, flinging Dominguez to the track, with at least one trailing horse appearing to run right over him.
Dominguez was carried off the track in a stretcher and rushed by ambulance to Jamaica. Initial reports said he suffered a bruised eye, but ESPN reporter Jeanine Edwards, who will host the Eclipse Awards, tweeted last night jockey John Velazquez told her Dominguez fractured his skull and had “bleeding on the brain.” Dominguez’ agent, Steve Rushing, confirmed a CAT scan revealed the fractured skull and said “the next 24 to 48 hours can be critical.”
Convocation, a 7-year-old gelding making his 20th start, got up and ran off, apparently uninjured.
After winning back-to-back Eclipse Awards for 2010 and 2011, Dominguez led all jockeys in earnings in 2012 with a record $25,582,252 in purse money while winning 341 races, second to Russell Baze’s 374, from 1,398 mounts. Dominguez has been the leading rider in New York every year since he moved here from the mid-Atlantic circuit in the winter of 2008.
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The New York Racing Association Friday reported an 11.8 percent increase in all-sources handle for 2012 over 2011, from $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion. Total handle on NYRA races alone jumped 12.4 percent, from $2 billion to $2.2 billion.
On-track wagering, including simulcasting, grew 7.9 percent, from $625.3 million to $674.9 million.
This growth far outstripped the handle on all races in the United States, which inched up 1 percent to $10.9 billion in 2012 from $10.8 billion in 2011.
The total estimated attendance on live racing at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga dropped 1.5 percent, however, from 1,806,865 in 2011 to 1,783,538 in 2012, though NYRA conducted more racing days last year, 245 compared with 240.