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Former Jockey Julio Pezua Injured

Former jockey Julio Pezua, winner of over 1,300 races, was injured last week in a spill at Belmont Park. The 65-year-old suffered several fractured vertebrae in his neck, requiring surgery, and is still hospitalized on Long Island.

Starting his American riding career at Calder in 1985, Pezua won several graded races, including the 1987 GI Manhattan S. and 1992 GI Met Mile. Since his retirement from riding races, he has remained at Belmont as an exercise and breeze rider.

Owner Aron Yagoda started a Gofundme to raise money for Pezua's lengthy recovery. Click here to donate.

The post Former Jockey Julio Pezua Injured appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Cabrera Out For Rest of Oaklawn Meet

Oaklawn leading rider David Cabrera likely will miss the remainder of the 2021-2022 meeting after sustaining upper back, neck and head injuries from a spill in Friday's first race, his agent Joe Santos said.

Santos said Cabrera has compressed C5 and C6 vertebrae, crushed cheekbones and suffered a concussion in the accident, which occurred in the upper stretch after his mount Mostly Awesome (Fusaichi Pegasus) clipped heels when in tight and fell, throwing the jockey to the ground. A trailing horse jumped the fallen Mostly Awesome near the three-sixteenths pole, unseating apprentice jockey Chel-c Bailey. Both horses involved in the accident were captured without incident and with no initial signs of distress. Bailey wasn't seriously injured and fulfilled her remaining engagements on the card. Cabrera was unconscious for approximately 20 minutes post-fall.

“It's really kind of dependent on the cognitive aspect of it, when he kind of grasps everything mentally,” Santos said. “He's a lot more active today and it's mainly just from the concussion. There's just some confusion there.”

Cabrera was the runaway leader in the Oaklawn rider standings with 62 victories through Friday, Day 53 of the scheduled 66-day meeting. Francisco Arrieta was second with 49 victories, two more than Santana, an eight-time Oaklawn riding champion.

The post Cabrera Out For Rest of Oaklawn Meet appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Longtime Handal Assistant Jose Mejia Suffers Severe Injuries In Morning Spill At Turfway Park

Longtime assistant to trainer Raymond Handal, Jose Mejia suffered severe injuries in a Sunday morning spill at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

According to Handal's Facebook post and a GoFundMe page, Mejia's mount stumbled and went down, landing on top of him. The 33-year-old assistant had to be airlifted to the hospital and was found to have incurred 10 broken ribs as well as four broken vertebrae in his spine.

Mejia underwent surgery to fuse the spine with rods and screws, and still has no feeling below his ribcage. Doctors are unsure whether that feeling will return.

“Anyone that is familiar with Handal Racing knows that Jose Mejia has been an integral part of the operation from almost the very beginning,” Handal wrote. “He's a hard worker, a team player, and most recently has been the ring leader of our strings on the road at Monmouth and Turfway.”

On Handal's website, Mejia is listed as the “Traveling Assistant” in charge of ensuring that “horses are safe and happy when they are required to travel away from their home track in order to race,” and the man in charge of the barn's shed row at Saratoga Race Course.

On Steve Byk's At The Races show Wednesday, Handal explained the incident further.

“It was just an unfortunate incident,” Handal said. “The track had closed for a couple days, and the first day that it reopened he was just doing a routine gallop with one of the horses there at Turfway. The horse switched to his right lead down the backside right around the three-quarters, took a funky step and stumbled. Jose tried to kind of take his head up a little bit, to try to help him recover like you would, but he just had too much momentum going forward. He went down and rolled over on top of him. It was a pretty horrific scene.”

The horse escaped the incident unscathed, getting to his feet and shortly thereafter was corralled by the outriders.

Mejia, however, did not move, and wound up requiring an airlift to the hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“He's been with me since the beginning, since I started training,” Handal explained (his career began in 2014). “He's just devoted himself and given so much to me and to our team and to so many different horses over the years, he's just gone above and beyond.”

Mejia's 7-year-old daughter, Callie, was staying with her mother in Connecticut over the weekend.

The Jockey Club's Safety Net Foundation responded to Handal's social media post, explaining that the organization is available to help fund Mejia's recovery.

The GoFundMe page to aide in Mejia's recovery is available here.

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Study: Racetrack Fatalities In Sweden, Norway Often Result Of Sudden Collapse

A new study reveals that the main cause of racetrack fatalities in horses racing in Norway and Sweden is sudden collapse, not catastrophic injury, as was previously suspected.

Dr. Ingunn Risnes Hellings and a research team looked at fatalities recorded by the Norwegian and Swedish Trotting Associations from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2019; 48 horses died during this period—38 Standardbreds and 10 Norwegian-Swedish Coldblooded Trotters. The scientists looked at breed, age, sex, frequency of starts, time of year, and racing distance in an attempt to identify risk factors. They also noted whether the horse competed in a trotting race under saddle or in harness.

Fatalities were included in the study if the horse was euthanized after becoming injured immediately before the race, during the race, or within an hour of racing.

The researchers found that 14.5 percent of fatalities were from traumatic or orthopedic injuries, while the rest were considered “sudden athletic death.” This is a distinct difference from the primary cause of racetrack fatalities in Thoroughbred racehorses, in which most suffer catastrophic orthopedic injuries. Sudden athletic death in Thoroughbreds occurs at a rate of between 9 and 19 percent.

The team also found:

A higher number of starts in the last 30 days increased risk of sudden death
30 horses died of acute circulatory collapse due to cardiac or pulmonary failure
10 horses died from hemorrhaging after blood vessel rupture
Seven of the 48 study horses were euthanized because of catastrophic injury
70 percent of the 40 horses in the sudden athletic death category had marked bleeding in the lungs
The rate of sudden athletic death was similar between both breeds

The scientists determined that the rate of catastrophic injury fatalities was comparatively low and that suspected or confirmed cardiopulmonary causes of death were similar to previous studies. They note that additional investigation into the pathologies causing the cardiopulmonary events is warranted.

Read the full study here.