Eightfiveinafifty and Chavez both okay

While Eightyfiveinafifty needed about 14 stitches to close a wound on his right hind leg, he otherwise escaped Saturday's bizarre incident in the at Aqueduct unscathed, according to trainer Gary Contessa.

Meanwhile, jockey Jorge Chavez, who fell off Eightyfiveinafifty when he bolted entering the first turn, had some body soreness, but suffered no serious injuries, according to his agent, Mike Monroe. Chavez did take off his lone mount Sunday at Aqueduct - Spa City Princess - but Monroe expects Chavez to be back riding Wednesday.

Chavez told both Monroe and Contessa that the bit broke on Eightyfiveinafifty entering the first turn of Saturday's Whirlaway, a race in which Eightyfiveinafifty was the 1-4 favorite based on a spectacular maiden sprint victory in January. Eightyfiveinafifty crashed through the temporary rail separating the inner and main tracks and then hurdled the main track rail and got loose on the backside before being corralled by a guard near the entrance to the stable gate.

Remarkably, the horse suffered only the wound to his right hind leg, according to Contessa.

"Other than that I couldn't see anything wrong with him," Contessa said Sunday morning. "He ate up, he come back pretty good, he was sound this morning, jogging sound, everything's good."

Contessa said the horse would need a week off from training. Contessa wouldn't speculate on whether he would keep the horse sprinting or try to stretch him out again.

"It's going to depend on how much time I lose, how his wound heals, how his brain handles what happened," Contessa said. "Does this start a new problem with him? How much does he remember what he did in that turn? A lot of things I got to do to get him over it mentally and physically, but he will live to fight again."

Meanwhile, Peppi Knows, who won the Whirlaway by one length over Afleet Again, received an 86 Beyer Speed Figure and is expected to return for the Grade 3, $250,000 Gotham on March 6.

Trainer Tim Kreiser said Peppi Knows got his left hind foot stepped on, known as a grabbed quarter, but he didn't think it would significantly impact the horse's training schedule. Kreiser said the horse vanned back to Penn National Saturday night and was a little tired Sunday morning.