Attached is a link to a race ran the other night at Hoosier Park that you would never think could happen to you. After clicking on the link, you will need to choose your track (Hoosier Park) and your date (September 27, 2012) then your race (#8).  Our nice filly DREAMIN BIG was in this race on Thursday evening. It wasn’t really the race we wanted to be in but they didn’t use the filly race so we were running against colts. We were the second favorite and she has won her last four races in a row (which is a great credit to her). Watch and listen carefully.

https://www.twinspires.com/tv/index.php?defaultAppState=Replay

She was the filly that veered to the right. She did brush the gate with her left neck and shoulder. She does have some scrapes on her left neck and shoulder. The rider flew off into the starting gate and is ok. The filly made a u turn and ran around the track loose until they caught her. Miraculously she doesn’t seem any worse for wear. I will give Marlon St. Julien a ton of credit for his ride and guidance in an unbelievable situation. As unbelievable as it sounds, none of the Jockeys were hurt. You can see two of them ending up in the infield. One of the horses did fracture a sesamoid (ankle) and is done racing but should be able to be saved for a stallion (which is little consolation) as he has won over $350,000 in his career.

Here is the tracks story. They had a brand new tractor (less than 3 days old) and the transmission got stuck and or stalled and killed the engine. The back up tractor (which was suppose to pull it in an emergency) couldn’t move the new tractor as it was not in neutral. Now if you have had a new car or tractor in the last year or two, you know that the dashboard is nowhere near what it was like a few years back as it is all computer ran. A simple radio adjustment is no longer simple. The point is that it takes a while to adjust to the new technology. The starter is also the track superintendent (as they fired the previous one a month ago) and in my opinion should not have both of those jobs. He was at the gate, the track vet was at the gate and the outrider was at the gate all of whom have radios, yet none were used. Also, the outrider stood at the gate and never pealed back around the track to warn the riders. The Stewards never hit the switch to turn on the emergency siren that is used when a horse is loose or in any other race track emergency. The track in all their generosity has to give you nothing. They gave each horse owner $750.00 which is what they give if a race is canceled after the races have begun that day. They also told us they are going to pay the jockey fees which is $100.00 each. I don’t think this will be the end of this debacle.