Ferrin Peterson

Jockey Ferrin Peterson suffered a broken, displaced collarbone when the horse she was riding, Chargina (Fed Biz), broke down in the third race at Thistledown Tuesday. Peterson was taken by ambulence to the nearby Cleveland Clinic for precautionary X-rays, where she was diagnosed with the break. Chargina suffered a catastrophic injury and was euthanized. The incident occured near the half mile pole, and another horse, Sushi Q (Palace), stumbled over her and unseated her rider, Roberto Perez. Both Perez and his mount were uninjured. "They took X-rays and I have...

This is the last in a series of travelogues that jockey-veterinarian Ferrin Peterson has written for the TDN about her charitable mission to Southeast Asia to bring much-needed veterinary care to the population's animals. To read the prior installments, click here, here or here. The trials of the jungle are ever-changing. We had started vaccinating the horses one evening when suddenly the sky opened and a downpour came. We returned the vaccines to the refrigerator and ran for shelter. In the evenings, I always read my book, "Where There Is...

Jockey and veterinarian Ferrin Peterson has been writing a blog for the TDN on a charitable veterinary trip to Southeast Asia to help refugees care for their animals. To read the prior installments, click here or here. I had my first meeting with my new team: the five men who are given the job title in their village as the "mule handlers." They were all new acquaintances to me, as the mule handlers I worked with in the past became human medics and others moved to new villages. The translator...

Editor's note: Jockey and veterinarian Ferrin Peterson is traveling in Southeast Asia to help refugee groups with the veterinary care their animals need, helping humans to survive the refugee crisis in a war-torn area. Click here to read yesterday's blog post. Once we reach the village, we set up camp which means successfully tying up your hammock between two sturdy trees to sleep in overnight. We bathe and wash our clothes in the river, and the pack animal team roams freely like a herd of wild horses. They always return...

Editor's note: Jockey Ferrin Peterson, DVM, has embarked on a charitable mission to Southeast Asia to help refugees care for their animals in war-torn areas, bringing veterinary knowledge and supplies to villagers with no other access to care. She will be contributing a blog to the TDN when conditions permit. Helping the under-served groups of the world was modeled to me from a young age. My parents had worked in Mexico before raising our family, and I have had relatives who served in China, Turkey, India, and Spain as engineers,...

The Backside Learning Center (BLC)--an independent non-profit organization providing support and resources in a safe, welcoming environment for the diverse community of racetrack workers and their families--will hold its largest annual fundraiser, "The 16th Annual Benefit for the Backside: A Day at the Races", Friday, Nov. 18 at Churchill Downs. While the event is sold out, the BLC is hosting an online, silent auction consisting of horseracing, and hard to find items including a Kentucky Oaks box for 6; a speakeasy tasting tour at Evan Williams bourbon for 20; a...

Freshman sire McCraken (Ghostzapper) got immediately off the mark with his first starter at Keeneland Thursday afternoon. Drawn widest of all in post nine, Crackalacking (f, 2, McCraken--Sacred Moon, by Malibu Moon) forced the issue from an outside third, gained command around the far turn and blew the race apart from there to graduate by five lengths at odds of 18-1. Extremely well-backed, rail-drawn firster Grand Oak (Ire) (Speightstown), off as the even-money favorite from a 6-1 morning-line quote for trainer Rusty Arnold, was a good second after a tough...

by T.D. Thornton, Bill Finley & Sue Finley Amid concerns that jockeys would either be protesting Monmouth Park's May 28 opening-day program or not riding at all during the meet because of their concerns over a new state rule that prohibits whipping outside of emergency safety usage, it took until 5:30 p.m. Tuesday for Friday's overnight at Monmouth Park to be released, with six races drawing 45 entrants ridden by 14 jockeys. Now that Friday's opening day program appears to be a "go," the looming larger question is what will...

Earlier this year, the son of a longtime family friend called me and said that he had claimed an eight-year-old gelding the previous summer, and he had raced a dozen or so times for him, but now he was nine, and he was worried about him. He wanted to make sure that he retired him sound, so that he could have a second career. After six or seven years on the track, he had earned it, he said. He asked my advice, and I had him contact Anna Ford at...

Ferrin Peterson, the second-leading rider at Monmouth this summer, plans to begin riding at the Aqueduct Fall Meeting when it opens November 6, she said Monday, adding that she intended to ride through the winter at the track. Jockeys joining the colony need to test negative for COVID in New York twice the week leading up to the meet, and to continue to follow strict protocols thereafter. Peterson, 28, has made a splash this summer on the Jersey Shore, for both on and off-track reasons. She rode 42 winners at...

When Ferrin Peterson came to Monmouth to ride this spring, she expected that she would have nine months as an apprentice rider to get her feet under her. And if she hadn't been so good, she would have. Last weekend at Monmouth, Peterson not only lost her bug after winning her 40th race Saturday, but went on to have the most successful weekend of any rider at the track, with four wins, five seconds and five thirds. Three of those wins came without the seven-pound allowance with which she had...

From the TDN LOOK Passion is a funny thing. What is it, you wonder, about one place or another, one person or another, one career or another that is so compelling that the person caught in its grip will do anything to have it? Ferrin Peterson can't exactly tell you why she will at least temporarily put aside the eight years of study and sacrifice that earned her a veterinary degree from UC Davis, one of the top schools in the country, and a lucrative-and safe-career as a large-animal vet....