Top jockey Julien Leparoux will be sidelined at least five more weeks with a spine injury suffered in a spill during a race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on May 14.

Leparoux is recovering from a compression fracture in his vertebrae after the horse he was riding in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes tumbled on the backstretch after clipping heels. Leparoux was unseated, along with Kent Desormeaux aboard another horse that fell.

Desormeaux was unhurt, but Leparoux had chest pains, bruises and a broken tooth. However, he returned to ride the next day in the Preakness Stakes, finishing 11th aboard Pleasant Prince. He won two races prior to the Preakness.

The injury was discovered May 18 following an MRI exam in Louisville, Ky. Leparoux's agent said Saturday the rider will see a doctor next week and have another MRI exam four weeks later.

Leparoux was last year's Eclipse Award winner as the nation's top jockey, and currently ranks 10th among riders in earning at more than $4 million. He was second in the current Churchill Downs rider standings behind Calvin Borel.

``He has a compression fracture of the T-8 in the middle of his back,'' Leparoux's agent Steve Bass said in a statement. ``He is resting and he is bored.''