Highs and lows for Lopez

For rider Karlo Lopez, Friday nights have been a mixed blessing at Columbus this year. He has won early in the card on both Friday nights at the meet but has been taken off the track by ambulance the same night.
Lopez was aboard Victory Ready in last Friday’s seventh race when the horse suffered a catastrophic injury at the wire of the six furlong race. Lopez was transported to Columbus Community Hospital where he was treated and released the same night. The same happened on opening night as Lopez was involved in a gate mishap where he was thrown under the horse in the gate and transported. On both occasions he has returned to ride before the weekend was completed. Lopez arrived in Nebraska late in the Fonner Park meet this spring and enjoyed a top ten finish in the standings at Lincoln with 14 wins.
◗ Apprentice Ashley Dill scored a riding triple Sunday to move into a tie for second early in the meet with Armando Martinez at 7 wins each. Jordan Olesiak scored a triple on Saturday evening and Martinez had a triple on Friday. Olesiak leads the current standings with 11 wins.
◗ The Columbus Races website has recently added live streaming video as well as archived replays of races at the meet. The replay section can be found at agpark.com, under the Horse Races tab.
◗ HRTV host Peter Lurie was a guest at the track last Friday evening, taking in the races while in the region to visit a friend in nearby Norfolk, Neb. Lurie spent the evening amongst the large Friday-night crowd and offered some handicappinig insight on the card with track announcer Gary Schaaf during the evening.