jockey injuries

Young jockeys Keith and Erik Asmussen, both sons of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, were each injured Saturday in separate races at Churchill Downs and Lone Star Park, respectively. Keith Asmussen was injured at about 12:47 p.m. ET in the 1st race at Churchill, a $10,000 claimer for fillies and mares three and up. The Equibase chart said his mount, Singsational (Audible) "was jostled between horses and squeezed back at the start, clipped a rival's hind heels and fell at the eleven sixteenths pole, then walked off." Singsational, who...

Norm Casse trainee Burning Bright (Empire Maker) crashed through the temporary rail in Wednesday's race 7 at Saratoga, the 1 5/8-mile John's Call S. on the grass, with all early reports indicating the 6-year-old gelding, who collapsed and died, sustained a probable cardiac event. The Equibase chart stated Burning Bright "suffered a fatal cardiac event on the second turn and hit the rail then fell." Jockey Luis Saez was alert and conscious following the spill, but was strapped to a backboard by attending paramedics and sent by ambulance to Albany...

Few will dispute the fact that jockeys are the iron warriors of horse racing. Physical danger is a very real part of the everyday existence of a rider, as is the continual adversity they are forced to endure and adapt (and react) to. On this edition of Let's Talk, the TDN's Christina Bossinakis and TVG's on-air analyst Gabby Gaudet talk to a trio of top jockeys about the stresses they suffer on the job.

A GoFundMe.com campaign has been started for jockey Vince Halliday, who suffered serious injuries in a July 15 race at Delaware Park. According to his wife, Stephanie Pastore, Halliday's injuries include: two small brain bleeds, a C-4 neck fracture, several thoracic fractures, a sternum fracture, a scapular fracture and a broken elbow. Riding the filly Tua (Normandy Invasion) in a maiden claiming race, Halliday went down when his mount clipped heels with another horse. Pastore said that while there have been no signs of paralysis, Halliday has a difficult period...

When Kelly Ryan, primary care sports medicine physician for Medstar Health and co-medical director for the Maryland Horsemen's Health Program, discusses with her peers in the sports medicine world her work attending to injured jockeys, she's often met with the sort of wide-eyed puzzlement usually reserved for rare finds. "Every single bad case that we have is almost one in a million--like no other sports medicine doctor has ever seen this type of injury before," Ryan said. "They're all very unique and every single one of them could be a...

Jockeys Javier Castellano, Mike Smith, John Velazquez, Manuel Franco and Tyler Gaffalione have pledged a percentage of their earnings from the GI Kentucky Oaks and GI Kentucky Derby race cards to help rider 28-year-old rider Vinnie Bednar, who suffered a catastrophic fall at Los Alamitos Racetrack Aug. 22. Bednar is currently experiencing lower-limb paralysis following initial surgery at USC Medical Center in Los Angeles. He remains hospitalized while awaiting transfer to the Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, a world-renowned, premier center for spinal and brain injury. The accident occurred in...

After collecting her second Royal Ascot victory last week with the Charlie Fellowes-trained Onassis (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the Sandringham H., jockey Hayley Turning is facing a spell on the sidelines after suffering a dislocated collarbone in a fall at Kempton on Saturday. Turner was thrown to the track near the finish of a seven furlong handicap when her mount Red Armour (GB) (Nayef) suffered a fatal injury.