Tyler Conner

Eleven weeks ago, jockey Tyler Conner lay on the turf at Colonial Downs calm, but for all the wrong reasons. "I couldn't feel anything," he said. "I was totally calm which was weird but it was because I wasn't in any pain." Conner was involved in an incident in the seventh race in Virginia July 24 when his mount, the Elizabeth Merryman-trained Stanza (Great Notion), clipped heels with eventually-disqualified race winner Montador (Nyquist) and fell around the far turn. Francisco Arrieta, who was aboard Montador, was suspended 15 days by...

The New York Gaming Commission steward at Saratoga, Braulio Baeza Jr., rules with an iron first. Make any mistake, no matter how small, inadvertent or innocent, and you will be penalized, fined as much as $4,000. Just ask trainer Gary Contessa, clocker Richie Glazer, former senior vice president of racing operations Frank Gabriel Jr., racing secretary Keith Doleshel and Assistant Racing Secretary Rob MacLennan. Each one made what amounted to an innocent and minor mistake and they paid a hefty price. There are, of course, three stewards. But the Gaming...

Jockey Tyler Conner, who was seriously injured in a fall at Colonial Downs July 24, continues to heal but says he's done riding races. In a video update posted to social media, Conner wears a neck brace, explains the complicated nature of his injuries and how he's begun to regain feeling in his arms and legs following the accident. "I broke my C1, compression fractured my T5, bruised my spinal cord which they call 'central cord syndrome'," Conner says in the video. "So I was fully paralyzed for a small...

Even though Nysos (Nyquist) was 1-10 on the board, Saturday's GII San Diego Handicap was a race he didn't have to win. He sprinted in his last two starts and had never been the distance of a mile-and-a-sixteenth. He also has a couple of large gaps in his form, suggesting that trainer Bob Baffert was having a hard time keeping him together. None of that mattered in the San Diego. Flavin Prat, who flew in from Saratoga for the ride, rode a patient race and saved ground into the second...

During the running of the seventh race at Colonial Downs on Thursday, Stanza (Great Notion), who went off at 6-1 for the maiden special weight, clipped heels and unseated jockey Tyler Conner. According to a post on X from Colonial Downs, Conner was conscious and airlifted to Virginia Commonwealth Hospital in Richmond for medical care. "He broke a vertebrae in his neck and broke his nose," agent Paula Bacon told TDN. "But he regained all of his feeling. He may have to have surgery. He's getting an MRI." Bacon was...

When Penn National shut down for a one-month planned break Sept. 23, Tyler Conner, the track's third-leading rider this year in both wins and earnings, wasn't sure what he'd do to keep his income flowing. Yet the 30-year-old jockey, who is soft-spoken but highly driven, managed to build enough out-of-town business to the point where he has just completed a demanding six-day run of riding at six different tracks in the Northeast and Canada. His whirlwind tour included more than 1,800 miles of driving, nearly all of which he accomplished...