Notes - July 22

- Joe Bravo broke his collarbone in a spill at Monmouth yesterday. That particular injury seems to be in vogue for jockeys these days - better that then some other things we've been seeing of late. For Bravo, it’s the latest in a bizarre string of bad luck.

Bravo had led a charmed life, escaping serious injury for most of his career until July 27, 2001, when he broke his leg in a spill at Monmouth Park.

That started a run of bad luck — and bad breaks.

He came back to Monmouth Park with a vengeance in 2002, winning 21 races in the first eight days of the meet, including six on May 18 and four the next day. His season ended, though, on May 30, when he was hurled from his mount trying to avoid a fallen Eibar Coa on the Monmouth turf course. Bravo landed hard on his left wrist, suffering a broken radius, fractures and a dislocated lunate (the central bone in the wrist). He also tore all the ligaments in his wrist.

Bravo stayed healthy all the way through the 2003 Monmouth Park meeting, winning 110 races and the ninth of his 10 riding titles, but fractured a vertebra in his neck on opening day at the Meadowlands, Oct. 2, after Tactical de Naskra clipped heels and fell in the ninth race. [Asbury Park Press]

Of course, he’s more fortunate than some other riders who have suffered critical injuries, including Omar Camejo, who remains in guarded condition.

He suffered three broken ribs and a punctured lung. He has been on a respirator to assist with his breathing and isn't able to speak, said Julie Carrasquel, wife of his agent, Pedro Carrasquel.

"But he was making signals with his hands, like thumbs up or 'I love you,'" she said. [Rochester Democrat and Gazette]

- Tim Ritchey was somewhat more enthusiastic about running Afleet Alex in the Travers less than 3 weeks after the Haskell in talking to Sherry Ross of the NY Daily News. "I really, really want to run in the Travers…..Saratoga is where Alex won his first big stakes races (the Sanford and the Hopeful last year as a 2-year-old)." We really, really want him to run in the Travers too. Meanwhile, Ms. Ross, commenting on her recent handicapping acumen, quips, "Get the feeling I could stop Lance Armstrong?” Perhaps we should get her to bet on Karl Rove to survive the Plamegate scandal.