Jockey Jose Flores dies at 57

Jockey Jose Luis Flores, a winner of 4,650 races, died Thursday afternoon after suffering severe cranial and spinal injuries in a spill during the ninth race at Parx Racing on Monday. Flores’s death was confirmed by his agent of 14 years, David Yannuzzi.

Love Rules and Flores were dueling for the lead between horses on the far turn of the sixfurlong starter allowance when Love Rules fell. A trailing horse, The Pooch, fell over Love Rules and Flores. A third horse, Easy River, unseated his rider while avoiding the two fallen horses.

Flores was taken to Aria Jefferson Torresdale Hospital in Philadelphia but never regained consciousness. An organ donor, he was kept on life support while his parents traveled from Florida to say their goodbyes and until a time could be coordinated with surgeons and organ recipients.

Flores died at 12:42 p.m. Eastern on Thursday after being taken off life support.

Love Rules, who won his prior start Feb. 26, was euthanized. He was trained by Harold Wyner.

A 57-year-old native of Peru, Flores had a long and successful career in Pennsylvania. He was the dominant rider at Penn National in the 1990s, winning riding titles in 1994, 1996, 1997, and 1998. He finished second in the standings there in 1995 and was third in 1993. He had 2,215 victories at Penn National.

In 1999, on the advice of trainer Scott Lake, Flores relocated to Parx, then named Philadelphia Park. He was the leading rider there in 2004 with 168 wins and was inducted into the Parx Hall of Fame in 2013. Flores won 2,255 races at the Bensalem, Pa., track.

Flores has ridden 1,203 of Lake’s 5,894 career winners.

“Jose was a great person, a great friend,” Lake said.

Flores died doing what he loved, according to Yanuzzi. When news spread of how badly he was injured, many of his fellow riders and trainers congregated at the hospital both Monday night and Tuesday.

“Jose was a good-natured, good-hearted guy,” Yannuzzi said. “He had money but he loved to ride. He’d say, ‘Why should I stop? I love the morning training, I love the afternoons, I love the camaraderie.’ There must have been 55 people at the hospital Monday night.”

Flores won the lone graded stakes of his career in 1999 on Loaded Gun in the Grade 3, $200,000 Philadelphia Park Breeders’ Cup.

Flores’s more recent stakes winners include Favorite Tale, with whom he won the Gold Fever at Belmont Park in 2014; Eighth Wonder, with whom he won three Parx stakes in 2015 and 2016; and Discreet Lover, with whom he won the Swatara at Penn National last November.

Flores finished third aboard Discreet Lover in the $100,000 Harrison Johnson Memorial at Laurel Park last Saturday.

In all, Flores rode in 28,683 races, according to Daily Racing Form statistics. His mounts earned more than $64.1 million. He is 42nd on the all-time win list in North America.

Parx canceled its Tuesday card. The track is planning a memorial service for Flores.

“Jose was a very wellrespected mentor in the local jockey colony.” said Sam Elliott, the track’s director of racing. “We canceled out of respect for Jose, his career, and his family.”

Flores was married to former jockey Joanne McDaid-Flores. The Floreses have a 7-year-old son, Julian. Jose Flores has two grown sons, Juan and Junior.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

The Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association is in the process of setting up a method by which people can donate to the Flores family, according to Mike Ballezzi, the organization’s executive director. The PTHA will have a tribute to Flores at its Horsemen’s Awards Banquet on March 28 at Celebrations in Bensalem, Pa.

According to Terry Meyocks, national manager of the Jockeys’ Guild, the last rider to die from injuries sustained in a race was Mario Chavez at Will Rogers Downs in October 2017. Flores is the 157th rider to perish from race-related injuries since the Guild began keeping such statistics in 1940.