2014: Dance With Fate rider Joe Duran mending

Of all the riders hurt last week at Del Mar, Joe Duran suffered the most serious injuries, and he wasn’t even in a race. An exercise rider for Peter Eurton, Duran was aboard star 3-year-old Dance With Fate when the colt’s bridle came unbuckled, causing the left rein to fall and the horse to veer to the right. Dance With Fate suffered catastrophic injuries to his right rear leg and had to be euthanized.

As for Duran, there is good news. His wife, Janice, said Eurton called her Monday while she was working and said he visited her husband and that he was sitting up and standing up and taking physical therapy. He suffered four fractured vertebrae, but Scripps La Jolla surgeons only repaired two and will let the other two heal themselves. Duran now has eight screws and two rods in his back. He also suffered three broken ribs that also will need to mend on their own and a broken foot that also won’t require surgery, only time.

“I know Peter said he could be back within four to six months riding, but we’re thinking it will be more like 10 months to a year,” Janice Duran said. “We hope to have him out of there and home in 10 days or so.”