Two horses died on the track at Aqueduct yesterday, euthanized by the track vet after suffering catastrophic leg fractures in separate races.
In the first race, jockey Filiberto Leon narrowly escaped serious injury or worse when 9-5 favorite Petersfield, leading the pack from the break, snapped his right front leg at the top of the stretch and fell in front of a wall of horses.
Four races later, Stoked broke down on the far turn. His rider, apprentice Ariel Smith, was uninjured after pulling the horse up.
Leon, who desperately tried to hang on but slipped off as Petersfield went down, was grazed by the hooves of two passing horses running just behind him, Czardas Dancer and Hail to Prospect. Moments later, the stricken rider was hurdled by another horse, Security Review, who was trailing the field. Leon rose briefly on his hands and knees, then lay back down again until he was placed on a stretcher, put in the ambulance and taken to track first-aid.
Miraculously, after being treated for an ugly bruise on his left forearm and a smaller contusion on his right shin, Leon was wheeled back to the jock’s room before the second race, stood up and limped off to take a shower. He hoped to ride again later on the card but was taken to North Shore Hospital for X-rays after his ankle became badly swollen.
Petersfield, who suffered a severe compound fracture of the fetlock joint, and Stoked, who shattered his left knee, were the second and third horses to lose their lives at the Big A in consecutive racing days. Pleasant Cap went down in the stretch in the ninth race Sunday with a badly broken cannon bone.
“We’re aware and always concerned,” said assistant track superintendent Jerry Porcelli, “but there doesn’t appear to be a problem with the track.” *Smith got two pounds heavier when he crossed the wire first aboard Regal Monument in yesterday’s fourth race.
Smith, 16, had been a double-bug boy since he began riding in New York New Year’s Eve, meaning his mounts got a seven-pound break in the weights. But Regal Monument was his 35th career winner, a milestone that reduced Smith to a single bug, which is worth five pounds off.
Smith can continue riding with his bug until the anniversary date of his fifth winner, which will be Nov. 12, 1999.