Hope they're okay Keeneland 7th

[jognlope]

Two horses unseated riders toward stretch, one jockey run over by horse, but no details, hope they're okay. Saw one horse get up and run.

[BIG RED]

Watched it live. The jockey with the horse on him, waited patiently, then got up on his own and walked away.

[Rackon]

Apparently John Velazquez was taken to hospital for evaluation, where he will remain overnight. Horse in front of him, with Jamie Theriot aboard, clipped heels with horse in front of him and went down, causing Tap Dancing to go down with Velazquez. JV was stunned, but was conscious and able to move all his extremities.

Got a Bloodhorse alert that he was involved in a serious spill, but it appears he's all right.

Here is link to updated Bloodhorse.com story:

http://news.bloodhorse.com/article/47384.htm

[SmartyJ]

Very ugly incident.

[Nets]

Thankfully, both jockeys seem ok and amazingly, both horses as well. Was really frightening to see.

[jognlope]

Thanks for that.

[Thess]

I'm glad to hear John Velazquez is okay, I hope he has a speedy recovery and he is not seriously injured in any way.

Since Keeneland has barred toe grabs, I am very surprised this happened after I recently read this statement from a transcript of the jockey club annual round table conference...

Another thing that happens: when you have horses with toe grabs, you magnify the chance of a horse having a spill when they clip heels.

There are several riders - Chris McCarron, Gary Stevens, Steve Cauthen - that have testified to this. When they rode in Europe [where toe grabs are not permitted] and heard horses clipping heels, they did not have nearly the level concern they did when they rode in this country…



The powers that be in racing can spin things any way they want, this is always going to be a dangerous game for the horses and jockey's involved.


-Joy

[titans1127]

Did anyone else also catch the 1st race as well? As they came out of the chute the 2 horse did something(could tell because of the trees in the way) unseated the rider and then fell on its left side right on top of the portable rail that they put out at the end of the chute. Scared the hell out of me and I dunno if the jockey and horse are okay.

[jognlope]

Woodway was vanned off according to chart.


http://www.equibase.com/static/chart/pdf/KEE100308USA1.pdf

[jognlope]

They will feature this on Today show this morning, NBC and have interview with jockey.