4/27: Incident mars Derby Works..
 

Incident with loose Carroll horse colliding with McPeek work horse at eighth pole stopped training earlier for nearly 30 minutes.

Rachel Alexandra was about to break off into her work when the sirens went off. Upon resuming training, RA went fast: 48.2 and 58.2 with a 1:10.3 gallop out.

Right before the incident, a host of Derby horses worked..

Fr. Fire: 57.4 and then slowed abruptly on the gallop out in 1:14.0.

Join in the Dance: 1:00.1

Chocolate Candy: :59.1

Mine That Bird: 1:02.0 and out in 1:15.1.

POTN: :48.3 and a terrific gallop out..

Win Willy: 1:02.0

Flying Private: :47.2

:(

i hope everyone came out of that ok, but it doesn't sound like that's the case....

Thanks for the updates! And wow close call with RA. Hope they are ok.

Man, sounds like a crazy incident.

Friesan Fire on an identical training pattern to Hard Spun. Even the comments on the workouts are nearly the same. We'll see if he's as good a horse. Quality Road dropping out certainly doesn't hurt his chances.

Just got this notification for POTN

Five Furlongs
Time: 1.01:00

Geez Steve, sounds like a very scary incident. Hope all involved will be ok?:(

Steve, did you see Chocolate Candy work? I know he had a designed stamina work in his last and got tired, how did he look today. Was the 59.1 as good as it stands out on paper?

What is a trerrific gallopout?

A 10 second flat 5th furlong in a morning work? That would be something.

I'm thinking 46.2 turned 58.2 turned 1:10.3

Sounds pretty bad. Hard to hope for the best, but I will anyway.......

Doesn't that track look really juiced up ? These workout times are really fast prior to a 10F race wouldn't you say ?

Didn't get a number as there was confusion between the two stands and so many going at once. Will get out time when I get back to track.

Visually the gallop out was terrific, and that opinion was shared by Neil Howard with whom I was standing. Howard sees it as coming down to Pioneer and Revenge.

No

Its my understanding that the McPeek horse was put down on the track... RIP.

No. In fact, track has been torpid for days. Spend a moment and look at the full workout listings. Was a bit tighter today but is hardly 'juced'. Find a new whipping post already.

lol a poor gallop out is like when Hard Spun worked about 3.5 furlongs pre 2007 and it goes down as a 5furlong work

a terrific gallop out is when a horse works about 6furlongs and it goes down as a 5furlong work :D

The incident was absolutely horrific. It happened right in front of me. The loose horse was working from the gate I think. It lost the rider at about the quarter pole and took off. A group of horses had gathered at the outside fence between the 1/16th pole and the wire. The loose horse appeared to be heading for a gap between two standing horses, but it ran directly into the left rear of a standing horse. The rider never reacted. It appeared as if he never saw the loose horse. The standing horse was put down on the track in front of hundreds of Dawn at the Downs visitors. The loose horse appeared to have a serious injury to the right front leg I believe.

That is slow by baffert standards

I never realized how often this occurs, isnt this the third incident in a week?

My frame of reference isn't that broad because I only watch morning training during Derby Week. But the track sure seems crowded to me. I'm surprised things like this don't happen every day.

I had no idea either of the traffic dangers of the training track . I'm just shocked at these incidents . Unfortunately it took Tin Cup Chalice to bring this to public attention .

Similar to the accident that claimed Tin Cup Chalice at Finger Lakes last week. Sad indeed, for all involved.

Raspberry Kiss...

Rest in peace.

Hope Dr. Rap is okay.

The article on DRF states that Raspberry Kiss was taken to a clinic and then put down. But I can assure you she was put down on the track.

That's a shame, condolences.

The track may have been somewhat dull during training hours but, if you spent a few moments and looked at the final times of the races from the weekend, I don't think you would use the same adjective to describe the racing surface.

Rasberry Kiss: 125k FT JULY07 Yearling Purchase by Champali.
Alot of money for a filly with no pedigree at all.

Not the final times Saturday- just the early fractions were very fast. They were actually on the slow side by approximately a second at 6F (other than the smokin fast Cash Refund.) Sunday they were very near "normal".

Who's talking about the afternoon? The conversation was refering to the morning.. And as Phil points out, the afternoon wasn't outlandish by any means. There was some wind that maybe factored in to those fast backstretch splits.

Defensive anyone?

Having been at Churchill the past weekend, I realize that there was a strong wind pushing the horses down the backside on Sunday. However, when a very modest maiden claiming horse like Aquinas cuts out a 44.4 half and a NW2L claimer like Whywhy Cat run a mile in 1:36 and change, as just two examples, there's no way that I would refer to the track as lifeless.

Your post said that the track was "torpid for days." I missed the part where the reader had to differentiate between the lifeless track in the morning and the "not outlandish" one in the afternoon.

I would certainly prefer to see the track playing lightening fast come Derby day.

It's not even close to that yet.

Given the toll the souped up tracks take on the horse population, why would you want that?

I'd much rather see a track producing par or close to par times on Saturday.

Saturday-
R1 $7.5K Starter 9F par time 1:51.4 actual time 1:54.60
R2 F&M $16K Claiming 6F par time 1:11.3 actual time 1:12.05
R3 F&M $30K Claiming 8F par time 1:37.1 actual time 1:37.79
R4 F&M $50K Claiming (3YO's) NW 6F par time 1:11.1 actual time 1:12.23
R5 F&M MSW 3U 6.5F par time 1:17.8 actual time 1:18.31
R6 $15K Claiming NW 6F par time 1:11.1 actual time 1:11.85
R8 ALW 3U 6F par time 1:09.5 actual time 1:09.18
R9 F&M AOC 3U 7F par time 1:23.5 actual time 1:23.83
R10 G3 3YO's 7.5F par time 1:29 actual time 1:30.21
R11 MCL 30K 6F par time 1:10.9 actual time 1:12.16

Sunday-
R1 $25K Claiming 7F par time 1:23.9 actual time 1:23.89
R2 F&M $40K Claiming 8F par time 1:37.1 actual time 1:37.83
R3 F&M $5K Claiming 8F par time 1:38.1 actual time 1:38.75
R4 F&M $15K Claiming 6F par time 1:11.5 actual time 1:11.82
R5 MCL 30K 6F par time 1:10.9 actual time 1:11.07
R6 AOC NW$ 7F par time 1:22.4 actual time 1:22.85
R8 $30K Claiming NW 8F par time 1:36.9 actual time 1:36.40
R10 MSW 3U 6.5F par time 1:17.2 actual time 1:17.66


The final times were not fast this weekend.

I don't disagree, but neither were they abnormally slow.

I think that's pretty much nonsense.

I'd love to see the track like it has been in most Derby's past. I think it makes for the most fairly run and exciting races.

Go talk to a trainer about the impact that racing over hard tracks have on the horses (splints, etc.), and maybe you'll change your opinion.