Cordero Hurt in Spill; Lord Grundy, Running on Dirt for First Time, Wins

Lord Grundy a 5-year-old racing on dirt for the first time, won the $49,500 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn. Purse by 4 1/2 lengths Wednesday before a crowd of 19,804 at Santa Anita in a race that saw veteran jockey Angel Cordero injured in a spill.

Lord Grundy, ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye, covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:50 2/5 on a track listed as muddy and paid $6.20 and $3. The victory was worth $30,250.

Rich Earth, ridden by Jorge Velasquez, was 19 lengths ahead of Marvin’s Policy at the wire and paid $3.20. There was no show wagering.

The fourth starter was Forkintheroad, who fell approaching the final turn and didn’t finish. According to race stewards, Forkintheroad bore in slightly, made contact with Rich Earth, lost his footing and fell.

Cordero, 45, was taken by ambulance to the track’s first-aid center before being transferred to Arcadia Methodist Hospital for precautionary X-rays, a track spokesman said.

The X-rays showed no fractures, but an examination revealed some soft tissue injury to the upper shoulder area, and Cordero was hospitalized overnight for observation.

Cordero is thoroughbred racing’s second-leading career money winner with more than $120 million in purse earnings. Cordero’s mounts won the two races before the spill.

Cordero was the second top jockey to be injured since the meeting started Saturday. Laffit Pincay fractured a vertebra in a spill Sunday and will be out for a month.

The feature race was scheduled to be run on turf but was moved to the main track because of recent rain. Lord Grundy had run his previous 23 races on turf. He has 6 wins, 8 seconds and 4 thirds in his 24 starts and career earnings of $212,549.