Top Jockey Velazquez Out With Injury

John Velazquez, who has won an Eclipse Award the last two years as the nation’s top jockey, will be sidelined indefinitely after being injured in a spill Thursday at Keeneland.

Velazquez, who ranks fourth in the country in earnings this year, broke his right shoulder blade when Up An Octave, who had just won the $110,600 Forerunner Stakes on turf, broke down and rolled on top of the rider.

Up An Octave, a 3-year-old son of Brahms trained by Todd Pletcher, Velazquez’s main client, had to be euthanized on the track.

The rider was released from a Lexington hospital Friday.

He had a couple of possibilities -- Bluegrass Cat and Sunriver, both of whom are trained by Pletcher -- for the Kentucky Derby on May 6 at Churchill Downs, but neither is considered a strong contender.

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If Bobby Frankel is going to win the $250,000 Santa Barbara Handicap for a fourth year in a row today at Santa Anita, the Hall of Fame trainer is going to have to do so with some new blood.

Megahertz, the diminutive mare with the wicked late kick who won the Grade II the last three years, is retired, so Frankel will be relying on Argentina and Eternal Melody to continue his streak.

Owned by Wildenstein Stable, Argentina, an Irish-bred daughter of Sadler’s Wells, is the better of the Frankel duo. A two-time winner in France, the 4-year-old was second as the favorite in her U.S. debut in the Santa Ana last month. She lost by half a length to Silver Cup after rallying wide. Alex Solis, Megahertz’s constant companion, will ride Argentina.

Eternal Melody, owned by Michael Bello, the man who raced Megahertz, is unproved at the Santa Barbara distance of 1 1/4 miles.

She has won two of six since coming to this country after winning four of 13 in New Zealand.

The Santa Barbara Handicap is not part of the Santa Anita pick six, which has a carry-over of $145,921 today.

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Keeneland, in the midst of its spring season, will have Polytrack when racing returns to Lexington in the fall.

The track’s board of directors earlier this week approved the installation of the synthetic surface. Keeneland will be the second track in Kentucky with Polytrack, joining Turfway Park in Florence. Woodbine, in Toronto, is scheduled to install Polytrack this summer.

Keeneland, which installed Polytrack on its training track in 2004, also plans on reconfiguring its track, making the turns wider and more symmetrical, improving irrigation and drainage systems and installing a modern safety rail.

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Like Now, who won the Gotham at 36-1 on March 18, will try for his fourth consecutive victory in his first race outside New York, the $325,000 Lexington today at Keeneland. The Grade II at 1 1/16 miles is the final major prep for the Kentucky Derby. Charismatic won the Lexington before his Derby upset in 1999.

Nine other 3-year-olds entered the Lexington, including the unbeaten Showing Up, owned by Lael Stables, the same people who race Florida Derby winner Barbaro.

Showing Up has won his first two starts by a combined 6 1/4 lengths and will be making his graded stakes debut today. Cornelio Velasquez will ride for trainer Barclay Tagg, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Funny Cide in 2003.