Gomez with possible ankle or heel fracture
 

Thrown from Daytona mount pre-race.

Is there any difference between an ankle or heel injury in terms of time missed?

He will be fine he doesnt need to be able to walk to ride.

i'm pretty sure a jocks weight is carried by his feet in the stirrups.

if he fractured his heel, he'll be out for months. my husband broke his heel in five places a few years ago, he was off work almost four months.

Actually a riders weight is on the balls of their feet, jockeys never have weight on their heels, now with a fracture it probably hurts like hell to put riding boots on but it would be far more comfortable for him to ride than walk, Gary Stevens said he broke his heel and couldnt walk for 6 months, but he could ride, these guys are tough.

He will, if he rides most likely freeze in a bucket of ice water and wrap it before he rides as there are no medics in the jocks room to block it like football players have. Gomez is pretty tough, he might gimp out to the paddock but once he gets in the stirrups mother nature will kick in and if the pressure of his heel doesnt pinch him to much when its down he will ride. Ive seen jock's win races with their shoulder that had just been dislocated tape up and ride and I have seen guy's like Scott Stevens ride with a broken collar bone in 4 weeks. Its actually pretty amazing how much the human body can take when you want to do something.

Those of us that are married are reminded of that very fact everyday.:tro:

true, they do balance on the balls of their feet. he'll have to borrow someone else's boots-the swelling will be there for some time. they usually wait ten days to do surgery for the initial swelling to go down. tony has an l-shaped scar, a titanium plate around his heel, and 14 screws holding it all together. not a pretty sight.

huh? It must be you.

I need some purel.

http://www.drf.com/news/santa-anita-...miss-4-6-weeks

seems odd 4-6 weeks, when Albarado missed about 3 months with same injury.

Odd??? Thanks Doc. :confused:

well, all heel fractures aren't the same. the doctor we used said he had another operation after my husbands on a guy who had broken both heels when he fell off a roof.
he said it 'looked like gravel in there'.
so, there's a fracture, fractures....and then there's gravel!
so, altho a busted heel is no picnic, the less fractures the better obviously. gomez is over a foot shorter,and well over a hundred pounds lighter than my husband. i doubt anyone heard his pop when he fell, like i did when tony jumped down off the truck....

see that gomez is finally coming back this weekend. two months off, but the doctor cleared him.
a plate and ten screws. he'll always know when the barometric pressure changes.

so gomez rode one race friday but pain was greater than he had expected. said he was going to give it another week to see how it goes.

in other news, pedroza given 7 days to reflect on his ride the day after the big 'cap:

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...ays?source=rss