Riding With Danger

Gary Stevens' horrifying spill at the end of the Arlington Million was just the latest in a series of thoroughbred racing accidents this summer.

While the Hall of Fame jockey and one of stars of the movie "Seabiscuit" may be the most well-known rider to be injured recently, he is far from the only one.

There have been at least five serious spills at racetracks around the country since July 23, leaving one rider in a coma at a St. Louis hospital, another who may never walk again, two others with fractured vertebra in their lower backs and no less than four horses humanely destroyed.

Jockeys understand their life is on the line every race in the scary side of a beautiful sport. But danger is part of the game.

"It happens more than you think, unfortunately," jockey John Velazquez said Sunday from Saratoga, where he's the leading rider for the meet. "Every day we go out there, we have to watch out. It could happen, doesn't matter when or where."

Earlier this year, Hall of Famer Laffit Pincay Jr. was forced to retire after breaking his neck in a spill at Santa Anita on March 1. Pincay won a record 9,530 races.

Stevens' agent, Craig O'Bryan, told The Blood-Horse magazine's Web site Sunday that Stevens was extremely sore but "as of now it appears he was very lucky and didn't break anything." An onrushing horse stepped on the fallen rider's left shoulder, but came frighteningly close to Stevens' head.

However, the public relations firm that represents the jockey released a statement Sunday that said he had been diagnosed with a collapsed lung. The statement said the jockey should be leaving the hospital in the next few days.

The fall occurred just when it looked like Stevens' horse, Storming Home, had won the Million. But the horse suddenly lunged toward the outside as he crossed the finish line, interfered with other horses, and Stevens was flung to the ground. Sulamani was moved up to first after Storming Home was disqualified.

Not even the best riders can control their horses all the time.

"Who knew the horse (Storming Home) was going to do what he did?" said Jose Santos, who rides Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide. "Whatever happens is going to happen. It can happen any time, any day."

There likely have been more mishaps that did not make national news this summer, but this most recent series of spills calls attention to the frightening side of racing.

Chris Quinn was thrown from his horse and trampled during a race at Fairmount Park in Collinsville, Ill., on July 19. A recent report in the Daily Racing Form said Quinn suffered severe head trauma and was being kept in a drug-induced coma.

Remi Gunn has a spinal cord injury after the horse she was riding during an Aug. 6 race at Ellis Park in Kentucky clipped heels and fell. There is still no official word on Gunn's condition, but reports from friends who visited her said the rider could be paralyzed from the waist down.

Also injured in the two-horse spill was Greta Kuntzweiler, who had a separated shoulder.

There were two spills at Del Mar in California — one Monday, the other a few hours after Stevens' fall.

The first was a chain reaction involving five horses and five riders. Three of the horses were humanely destroyed; jockeys Anthony Lovato and Jose Silva fractured vertebra in their lower backs and Tyler Baze broke his foot. The other horses and riders were not injured.

"It was scary," Del Mar spokesman Mac McBride said. "These things are happening in rapid-fire order. It's very unsettling. It's extremely unfortunate we lost three race horses. It could have been much, much worse."

On Saturday, a three-horse spill resulted in one horse being euthanized and one jockey — Max Corrales — sustaining shoulder and knee injuries.

"You just have to concentrate on what you do on your horse," Santos said, "and you don't worry about it."

In Sunday's last race at Saratoga, Pablo Fragoso may have injured ribs after his horse, Bon Lil, slammed into the inside rail and unseated the jockey. Fragoso bounced off the rail, but got to his feet and walked off the track. Officals said he was taken to a hospital for X-rays.

Among others injured in spills this year were Julie Krone and Patricia Cooksey, racing's winningest female jockeys.

On April 12, Cooksey broke both legs when her horse clipped heels with another horse during the first race at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

Krone broke her back when she was thrown from her horse at the start of a race at Santa Anita in March. Krone, who returned to riding in November after retiring 3½ years earlier, recovered from fractures in her lower back and began riding again last month.

By Richard Rosenblatt