Loose-horse incidents put horsemen on edge after recent string of fatalities

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Given the events of the past week at Churchill Downs, the sight of two horses running loose without a rider – one a Kentucky Derby starter, one a Kentucky Oaks hopeful – made for some heart-palpitating moments Thursday morning during training hours.

Thankfully, neither Derby runner Verifying nor Oaks longshot And Tell Me Nolies were hurt, and both, as of Thursday morning, were expected to be able to make their engagements.

Verifying, in his penultimate gallop before Saturday’s 149th Kentucky Derby, unseated exercise rider Joel Barrientos at approximately the five-furlong pole. Verifying ran free before outriders caught him between the three-sixteenths and eighth pole. The outrider brought Verifying back around, off the gap, and back to Cox’s barn. Cox said the horse must have ducked from something.

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“He’s fine,” Cox said. “No cuts, no scratches. They caught him quick. Honestly, they caught him before I knew it was him.

“If this horse gets beat, it won’t be because of that. He’s fine.”

Barrientos was taken to a local hospital to be examined for a possible right arm or shoulder injury.

The siren that blares when a horse is running loose gets everybody’s attention. At the time it went on Thursday morning, the majority of Derby and Oaks horses were on track.

Trainer Steve Asmussen, atop a stable pony, had just watched his Derby candidate Disarm school in the starting gate before he went for a gallop. Asmussen went the opposite way to pick him up. He lost sight of him for a few seconds.

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“I’m glad I didn’t have a blood pressure machine on me,” Asmussen said.

Asmussen said that when he was assured the horses were okay, he exhaled.

“You immediately think when Verifying wins in a couple of days, hell, we’ll all want to be turning them loose two days out,” Asmussen said.

Moments after Verifying was caught, Kentucky Oaks entrant And Tell Me Nolies reared and tossed her exercise rider as she was coming off track following her training session. She ran right back to her barn, according to trainer Peter Miller.

“In 22 flat,” Miller quipped. “She’s okay, I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same. I think that might take five years off my life.”

The incidents just serve to underscore how everything has to go right on a daily basis just to make it to the Kentucky Derby. Or any race, for that matter.

Beginning April 27, with the fatal breakdown of Kentucky Derby hopeful Wild On Ice at the conclusion of a workout, through Tuesday, when horses Take Charge Briana (musculoskeletal injury) and Chasing Artie (post-race collapse) died, there have been five fatalities at Churchill Downs in eight days. It has led to some uneasy feelings heading into two of the biggest days of the year, the few days racing is in the mainstream limelight.

Saffie Joseph Jr., who trains two of the horses who died, also is the trainer of Lord Miles, the Wood Memorial winner who is entered in the Kentucky Derby. He is as perplexed as anybody as to what happened.

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Thus far, tests taken on Joseph’s pair of Chasing Artie and Parents Pride – who died Saturday night – have not shown a definitive cause of death. Joseph has volunteered to scratch all of his horses entered here who were based at Keeneland while more tests are done.

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As of Thursday morning, Joseph was still permitted to start Lord Miles in the Derby. If, for some reason, he is forced to scratch him by 9 a.m. Friday, Cyclone Mischief, who is first on the also-eligible list, will draw into the field.

Last year, Rich Strike drew into the race at the last minute before pulling off his 80-1 upset.

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