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Brian Hernandez Tests Positive For Coronavirus, Off Tuesday Mounts At Churchill Downs

Jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. has tested positive for the coronavirus, as first reported by the Daily Racing Form. He had been scheduled to ride Art Collector in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, but the colt was removed from consideration Tuesday morning due to a minor hoof injury.

Hernandez and the other riders were tested for COVID-19 Monday. Hernandez said in a text to Kentucky Derby pool reporter Jennie Rees that he tested positive for the coronavirus but that he also tested positive for the antibodies, “which means I am no longer contagious.”

Hernandez was named on four mounts at Churchill Downs on Tuesday, but he has taken off and is awaiting further updates on what the positive test menas.

“Now we are waiting for Churchill and the health department to tell us when we can go back to riding,” Hernandez said.

The news that he'd tested positive came to Hernandez even as there were issues whether his scheduled Kentucky Derby mount, Art Collector, would run after Bruce Lunsford's colt nicked his left front heel in a routine gallop Monday morning. The final decision to withdrawal Art Collector from the Kentucky Derby was made Tuesday morning after the colt continued to show tenderness in the heel.

Hernandez last rode at Ellis Park on Aug. 29, and is named to ride three graded stakes mounts on Thursday and Friday's cards.

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Jockeying Around With Art Collector: Hernandez Filling In For Exercise Rider Aboard Derby-Bound Colt

Jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. has been filling a rather unusual role for the past several days at Churchill Downs. During the special training hours set aside for Kentucky Derby contenders, Hernandez has been out on the track as his mount Art Collector's exercise rider rather than watching him from the rail.

Jockeys for big races will often be aboard their mounts for major workouts, but day-to-day exercise riders are usually tasked with galloping and jogging.

Trainer Tommy Drury indicated that the colt's regular exercise rider, James Lopez, has been undergoing quarantine due to the COVID-19 protocols at Churchill Downs.

“Tommy asked me a few days ago if minded just coming out and getting on him,” Hernandez explained. “I said 'of course I don't, I'm here every morning anyway.' It's like being back at Evangeline Downs again. When I first started riding, I had to gallop everything I rode.”

When Art Collector shipped in to Churchill from the Skylight Training Center on Wednesday last week, Hernandez got a leg up on the colt for Thursday morning's training session, a scheduled gallop.

Art Collector was a bit of a handful during a gallop under jockey Brian Hernandez on Aug. 27 at Churchill Downs

“The first morning after he came back from Skylight he was out here at Churchill and I galloped him,” Hernandez said. “He's normally a pretty laid-back horse, but that morning there it was a little later and we had a lot of traffic, he got a little aggressive and wanted to jump up and go. A couple times I had to reach up and slow him down. My wife, she was making fun of me later that night. She said if I was her gallop boy, she'd have fired me!”

Art Collector and Hernadez went through a five-furlong workout together on Friday, covering the distance in 1:00.80, before jogging one mile on Saturday and two miles on Sunday.

“With these good horses like that, you want to get on them every day if possible,” Hernandez said. “Getting on him the last couple mornings and jogging him, you know where you're at with him. He's jogging off great right now, and seems to be really happy with himself… He's a happy horse and he seems to be going the right way right now.”

The colt's regular exercise rider Lopez was able to return on Monday for a scheduled gallop.

“The good news is that Brian's been on this horse so much in the mornings, and he knows him well,” said trainer Drury, for whom Art Collector is a first Derby starter. “He's a very kind horse. The first day we galloped him here, that's probably the most animated I've ever seen him on the racetrack, so I was glad that Brian was able to get along with him.

“At this point, you're not so much thinking about training, you're just keeping him happy. He's fit and ready to roll.”

Thanks to the National Turfwriters and Broadcasters Association (NTWAB), which has assembled a group of pool reporters providing independent reporting to members unable to be on the Churchill Downs grounds this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

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‘We’ll Let The Horse Take Us Along’: Art Collector Could Use Ellis Park Derby As Springboard To Roses

If Keeneland's Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner Art Collector races again before the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, it will be in the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9 at Ellis Park.

Trainer Tom Drury said that Bruce Lunsford's Art Collector could run in the 1 1/8-mile Ellis Park Derby as a tightener if a streak hot weather would make him ease up in the colt's training. Art Collector secured a spot in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby after picking up 100,000 qualifying points for winning last Saturday's Grade 2, $600,000 Blue Grass by 3 1/2 lengths over the filly Swiss Skydiver. Ellis Park regular Brian Hernandez Jr. is Art Collector's jockey.

“No. 1, I'm just sure thankful that race is there,” Drury said of the Ellis Park Derby. “Ellis, I know they had to work hard to have their meet this year. To keep a race like that really helps us, keeps us from having to travel if we decide to go there. If I knew it was going to be 65 degrees every morning and I could train him exactly the way I wanted, I would probably say we're just going to train up to the Derby.

“But the first part of August, it could be crazy kind of weather. If that's the case, do you really want to be cranking on your horse (on a daily basis)? So I'm glad to know that race is there. I've met with Bruce and we've discussed it and decided we'll let the horse take us along; we're not going to take him. If we feel he needs another race, that is the only spot that's even in consideration. If we feel we don't need another race, we'll just train up to the big dance.”

The Ellis Park Derby marks a historic occurrence in track history, with Ellis Park only in position to have a Kentucky Derby prep because of the coronavirus-forced delay of the Churchill Downs classic. The Ellis Park Derby winner will receive 50 qualifying points — which should guarantee a spot in the 20-horse Kentucky Derby — but that's not a consideration for Drury.

“We're in a good spot now,” Drury said. “Before the Blue Grass, it was a little nerve-wracking. Because that was an all-or-nothing deal. Now that we got over that hurdle, it's almost like you can exhale a little bit. Now your whole thought process is on your horse. It's not on getting points to get there, or any of the other things going on around you. It's just focusing on the horse and doing what's right for him. You're not even thinking about the (Ellis Park Derby) purse.

“In all honesty, you don't even have to win that race. If you need that race as a tightener, it's there for you. If you don't, you don't. The good news is that everything seems to be in order at this point. He came out of the Blue Grass in good order and he's a happy horse. And usually that's a big part of being successful, having a horse that's on his game and happy and enjoying what he's doing.”

Another prominent horse under consideration for the Ellis Park Derby is Godolphin's Brad Cox-trained Shared Sense, who picked up 20 points toward Kentucky Derby qualifying in winning Indiana Grand's Grade 3, $300,000 Indiana Derby under Florent Geroux last week.

“The Ellis Park Derby is on the discussion table,” Darley America president Jimmy Bell, whose team also oversees Godolphin's American racing operation, said in an email response to an inquiry. “We obviously have some other options that we are considering as well. A little more time and we'll have a better idea as to which direction we're headed.”

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