Terrible Spill at Belmont

He must have been scared ---less.
He went down with all those horses behind him.
And he knew he was going down, he had plenty
of time to think about being trampled.

Like knowing you are going to have a bad car wreck.

[the_fat_man]

Good to hear he's ok.

Hard to make sense of why he went down. He starts out with his left leg out of the iron and, by the turn, the other is out and he's COMFORTABLY riding bareback. Towards the end of the turn, without much of a struggle to stay on, he just falls off. The horse didn't take a bad step and was keeping a straight path.

Odd

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

Good to hear he's ok.

Hard to make sense of why he went down. He starts out with his left leg out of the iron and, by the turn, the other is out and he's COMFORTABLY riding bareback. Towards the end of the turn, without much of a struggle to stay on, he just falls off. The horse didn't take a bad step and was keeping a straight path.

Odd

He was getting bounced a lot right as they straightened for home... Weight seemed to get shifted..

To be honest? It's a f'n miracle he's totally unharmed.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

Good to hear he's ok.

Hard to make sense of why he went down. He starts out with his left leg out of the iron and, by the turn, the other is out and he's COMFORTABLY riding bareback. Towards the end of the turn, without much of a struggle to stay on, he just falls off. The horse didn't take a bad step and was keeping a straight path.

Odd

Our cameraman, who's a rider, thought he might have lost his balance when the horse switched leads. Let me know if you can see that.

Either way, pretty scary, and thankfully he sounds like he'll be OK.

Eerily worth noting that today is the very sad 20th anniversary of the death of Mike Venezia.

[Hickory Hill Hoff]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Our cameraman, who's a rider, thought he might have lost his balance when the horse switched leads. Let me know if you can see that.

Either way, pretty scary, and thankfully he sounds like he'll be OK.

Eerily worth noting that today is the very sad 20th anniversary of the death of Mike Venezia.

I remember that day well..... I heard racing was cancelled and wondered why, when I got home from work and watched the NYRA replays with Harvey Pack....I saw why. The was a tough show for everybody and really sad. Hard to believe that was 20 years ago.

[ELA]

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

Good to hear he's ok.

Hard to make sense of why he went down. He starts out with his left leg out of the iron and, by the turn, the other is out and he's COMFORTABLY riding bareback. Towards the end of the turn, without much of a struggle to stay on, he just falls off. The horse didn't take a bad step and was keeping a straight path.

Odd

Actually it's not. Comfortably is a very relative term to everyone -- except the jock. It's hard to explain, but many jocks have told me that if you lose the irons it's kind of like you can only do one thing to stay on -- for example, either squeeze or balance. Regardless, he is incredibly lucky that this wasn't a disaster, yet along that he escaped virtually unharmed.

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Our cameraman, who's a rider, thought he might have lost his balance when the horse switched leads. Let me know if you can see that.

Either way, pretty scary, and thankfully he sounds like he'll be OK.

Eerily worth noting that today is the very sad 20th anniversary of the death of Mike Venezia.

I haven't spoke to Norberto, but that was my knee jerk reaction and it's very tough to see, especially so as Norberto had no control over it at that point. I thought the horse might have "slid out" slightly or something that caused his weight to shift and him to lose his balance. I wouldn't be surprised if the saddle has slipped as well.

Regarding Mike Venezia -- it's rather ironic to say thank you for pointing this out.

Eric

[the_fat_man]

Originally Posted by ELA

Actually it's not. Comfortably is a very relative term to everyone -- except the jock. It's hard to explain, but many jocks have told me that if you lose the irons it's kind of like you can only do one thing to stay on -- for example, either squeeze or balance. Regardless, he is incredibly lucky that this wasn't a disaster, yet along that he escaped virtually unharmed.
Eric

How about the Indian jocks?

[zippyneedsawin]

"I got really lucky."


http://drf.com/news/article/99036.html

[the_fat_man]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Our cameraman, who's a rider, thought he might have lost his balance when the horse switched leads. Let me know if you can see that.

Hard to say for sure as the horses' feet are not visible at the point at which it happens (just before they enter, which means at the very end of the side shot, and just before the stretch headon). However, when they enter the stretch, the horse is lefty and she switches a few strides later. So, unless she changed very early, then switched lefty, then back again, I would tend to doubt it.

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

Good to hear he's ok.

Hard to make sense of why he went down. He starts out with his left leg out of the iron and, by the turn, the other is out and he's COMFORTABLY riding bareback. Towards the end of the turn, without much of a struggle to stay on, he just falls off. The horse didn't take a bad step and was keeping a straight path.

Odd

No such thing riding comfortably bareback for males.
His cajones were rattled in a bad way.
So he is going to grip the horses girth with his legs
like a fine English rider...
dont think so.