Many years ago at AP, on a red hot Saturday with the paddock packed with kiddies, JR Smith Jr was just starting out. Not sure who's horse it was either Dee Poulos or Emagene Schwan's went down in the saddling stall. I think it was the shorter of the two trainers but she ran out to the center of the paddock and the crowd gasped as they thought the horse had just died right there. Jr. jumped the railing and grabbed two ice bags from a near by beer cart, jumped back over the railing and put them on the horse's neck and as he hosed the horse off it rose up, shaked a bit and of course was scratched. I know JR's horse didn't win the race. And the cheers the crowd gave AFTER he came back thru the paddock after losing the race made it one of those times that you can't ever forget.

We are very proud of our roaches. Try to avoid the ones that fly.

He looks pretty damn big to me on the monitor.

They doon't stay small for long...

The Caiman Gators kind of do. My little brother had one of them as a pet in middle school.

Some types of Caiman get huge.

I've seen this at least twice at Calder. Several years ago.

I think they may have put up some sort of preventive fencing, barrier, etc since then.

Moments like that make you believe horses have a sense of humor and it is at our expense! Kind of like how they always manage to find the one muddy area to toss you off into.

I believe I recall one of the locals telling me that gator hasn't been seen in at least a year.

It was mentioned about a year ago, but it could have been old news then:

I'm sure if they get too big, they just relocate them. Gators tend to be migratory.
From the google view it appears that there could be some chance of that.

I heard that Shipping News' racing career was over. Is there truth to that? Anybody know how he's doing now?

Latest from the DRF:

http://www.drf.com/news/tampa-bay-do...-swimming-lake

Poor baby - one horse that can lead himself to water. I wonder if anyone caught this on film. Happy to hear he's okay.

Video
 

Wow. That is one lucky horse. So much could have gone wrong, in so many ways ...

Shipping News is available for adoption through TROT.

“He’s just a big 17.2-hand puppy dog; you can’t help but love him,” says Summer, vice president of TROT. “He’s not strong-willed, not fresh, not mean. He’s like a Great Dane. He’s a big, sweet, handsome guy.”

http://www.paulickreport.com/feature...-out-of-water/

http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbP...try=USA&race=6

Easily the weirdest race I've ever called. Two Step Partner shied from the whip, jumped the hedge, dumped the rider and then jumped into the River Downs infield pond. Next time they brought him over, they ran him on the dirt so no hedge, and brought him over with a life preserver over his neck! He won!