Falling in the dirt doesn't do much harm usually, especially if over onto the side. The vet should have been standing there watching the whole thing, if there was one behind the gate. Let's hope there was.
I don't like to see young horses pushed into the gate when they appear distressed, either, but I'm not the ones working with the individual horse in the morning, and knowing it's personality like the gate crew does.
Nearly always (99%) the best thing to do with any trained but novice horse is calmly push right on through. Better to load it into the gate (win that balk) let it break and have it run poorly, than let it's last memory be of being a whackadoodle. Taking that horse out of the race would have definitely enforced "gate scary upset lets act up when we get here" and probably worsened it for next time.
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"Have the clean racing people run any ads explaining that giving a horse a Starbucks and a chocolate poppyseed muffin for breakfast would likely result in a ten year suspension for the trainer?" - Dr. Andrew Roberts
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