Jockey agent Vince DeGregory, who turns 89 years old Aug. 29, thought he had seen it all – at least until Sunday's seventh race at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.
“In all of my years on the racetrack since I was 16, it's over 70 years that I've seen horse racing, I never saw anything like that one in my lifetime,” DeGregory said.
The legendary agent was referring to the chain-reaction spill that began when his rider, apprentice Diego Herrera, clipped heels while aboard Sassy Chasey approaching the far turn of the six-furlong maiden claiming race for fillies and mares. After Sassy Chasey and Herrera went down, six other horses also fell or lost their riders, leaving just five of the 12 starters to finish the race.
Miraculously, there were no serious injuries among jockeys or horses, with four riders going to a local hospital for evaluation before being discharged. Among the seven horses, there were only a few lacerations that required stitches. All were back in their stalls Sunday night.
Sassy Chasey was racing in third, in between frontrunners Katie's Paradise to the outside and Scream and Shout along the rail when she appeared to clip the heels of Katie's Paradise and went down, setting off the chain reaction that involved Backtoflash and Cesar Ortega; Whiskey Blue and Kyle Frey; Siena Silk and Emily Ellingwood; Renegade Princess and Tyler Baze; Phoenix Tears and Tiago Pereira; and Corners Up and Juan Espinoza.
Sassy Chasey scrambled to her feet with a saddle that slipped back from the impact of hitting the ground and began bucking while heading off in the wrong direction up the backstretch. At least two other horses scrambled to their feet and ran in that direction, while four runners continued behind the field without their riders.
The race was completed, with Mongolian Panther finishing first under Edwin Maldonado, but stewards would eventually declare the event “no contest,” citing a California Horse Racing Board rule giving stewards the option to do so if “mechanical failure or interference during the running of the race affects the majority of horses in such race.”
Flavien Prat, who was aboard one of the two early leaders, Scream and Shout, said he was unaware of the accident until the finish when he saw horses galloping around the clubhouse in the wrong direction. One of those horses, Phoenix Tears, jumped over a temporary railing at the gap near the seven-eighths pole that leads to the stables. The other horses were rounded up by outriders.
Four of the jockeys, who walked across the infield while medical personnel attended to Baze, Ellingwood and Ortega, were greeted with cheers from the crowd as they returned to the jockeys' room.
Pereira, who only 24 hours earlier won his first U.S. Grade 1 race in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic, stopped along the railing to kiss his wife and young daughter. Pereira's agent, Patty Sterling, said Pereira's wife urged him to go to a local hospital for evaluation after he said his hip was sore. Baze, Ellingwood, Ortega and Pareira all went to Scripps La Jolla for X-rays and CT scans.
On Monday morning, agents for the four riders said each had some degree of body soreness but no broken bones or concussions. Reports on all seven horses were also positive, with no serious injuries documented, with only a few minor lacerations that required stitches.
DeGregory said Herrera was also suffering from body soreness on Monday, but he was not among those who went to the hospital. Herrera will have a meeting with the stewards to review the incident. “I told him to stand up for himself,” said DeGregory, who believes the outside horse, ridden by Jose Valdivia, made it too tight for Sassy Chasey as the field approached the far turn. “I told him, 'When they show you the head-on shot you'll have a better idea of what happened.'”
Sterling said Pereira had soreness in his ribs and right hip but that he hoped to ride Thursday afternoon while taking mornings off until then.
Sterling also represents Ortega, an apprentice who has been involved in two other mishaps this meet while struggling to find the winner's circle. She said the 26-year-old would take off the rest of the meet, regroup and point for the Los Alamitos meeting that follows Del Mar's closing day Sept. 6.
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Jack Carava, agent for Tyler Baze, said the rider complained of some chest pain Sunday night and overall body soreness on Monday morning. He will take the week off, including a scheduled trip West Virginia to ride Restrainedvengence for trainer Val Brinkerhoff in Friday's $800,000 Charles Town Classic. He said Baze will return to ride the final week at Del Mar, Sept. 2-6.
Agent Fernando Navarro said his two riders, Ellingwood and Frey, both worked horses Monday morning and will ride this week. Ellingwood has bruising of the rotator cuff, Navarro said.
The post All Jockeys, Horses Escape Serious Injury In Seven-Horse Spill At Del Mar appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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