Two of Penn National's leading riders, Tyler Conner and Dana Whitney, sustained injuries in a four-horse accident during the running of the third race Wednesday night at the Grantville, Pa., racetrack. One of the horses involved was euthanized.
Conner suffered a concussion when his mount, Siberian, went down with a cannon bone fracture, while Whitney has a broken shoulder and compound fracture of a femur after his mount, Jump Free, fell over Siberian on the turn of the six-furlong race for $5,000 claimers.
Two other riders, Yomar Ortiz and Vladimir Diaz, were dislodged from the saddle but not injured. A fifth horse took up and was eased. Five of the original 10 starters finished the race.
Siberian, owned and bred by Matthew Schera and trained by James Lawrence II, was euthanized. No other horses were injured, according to Eric Johnston, director of racing operations at Penn National.
Whitney will undergo surgery on his femur at noon on Thursday at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa., his agent, John Krulock said.
“The break is right in the middle of the femur,” Krulock said. “It was completely separated. They were able to get the bone back together partially to go into the surgery. It's a really bad break.”
Krulock said the shoulder fracture is not a collarbone injury, something Whitney has broken before, and also will require surgery. He had no timetable for the rider's recovery period or possible return to racing.
A three-time leading rider at Penn National since 2010, Whitney is currently seventh in the standings, with 61 wins from 443 mounts. He has 4,268 lifetime wins from 26,745 mounts.
Conner, second in the standings during the current Penn National meet with 139 wins from 655 mounts, is expected to miss at least a week while he goes through concussion protocol, said his agent, Marty Salvaggio.
“Tyler was released from the hospital last night,” Salvaggio said. “Other than the concussion, he's OK. He'll go back to his family care provider and go through a concussion test with them to get an OK to return. I don't know how long that process will take, but we want to err on the side of caution.”
Salvaggio said Conner, who scored his 1,000th career victory in July, has suffered previous concussions but from a different kind of racing. Before taking out his apprentice license in 2014, Conner participated in motocross racing. He switched to horses after being convinced through a couple of accidents that motocross was too dangerous of a sport.
The post Whitney Suffers Compound Femur Fracture, Conner Has Concussion From Penn National Accident appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
