Renowned jockey Jose Flores, 56, was pronounced dead at the Aria Frankford Torresdale Hospital in Philadelphia on Thursday at 12.42pm after a racing accident
A renowned jockey has died just days after suffering horrific injuries in a racing accident.
Jose Flores was pronounced dead at the Aria Frankford Torresdale Hospital in Philadelphia on Thursday at 12.42pm.
The 56-year-old had been on life support for three days after suffering major cranial damage and spinal injuries in the accident earlier this week.
Flores, was among the best jockeys in Pennsylvania history, was kept alive until his parents could arrive from Florida.
The jockey was racing on Monday at Parx Racing, a track in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, when his horse Love Rules went down and he was thrown off.
He hit the ground headfirst and the initial shock is believed to have caused the brain damage.
Flores won 4,650 races in a career that spanned more than three decades.
He was the top career earner at Parx Racing, which was formerly known as Philadelphia Park.
The jockey was racing on Monday at Parx Racing, a track in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, when his horse Love Rules went down and he was thrown off
The Equibase thoroughbred database said Flores’s mounts earned $64 million in nearly 29,000 career starts.
‘It’s unbelievable, just sickening,’ trainer Scott Lake, who has known Flores for close to 30 years, told Philly.com.
‘He was just tremendous, a nice guy, always a professional.’
Parx Racing called Flores an ‘outstanding jockey’ and expressed condolences to his family.
The US Jockeys’ Guild said Flores was the 157th rider to die from race-related injuries since they began keeping statistics in 1940.
Flores, was among the best jockeys in Pennsylvania history, was kept alive until his parents could arrive from Florida