Multiple mishaps during training at Belmont

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The final morning of 2014 was chaotic on the Belmont Park backstretch, where one horse fatally broke down and five backstretch workers were taken to local hospitals as a result of a bevy of mishaps.

Soldier Inthe Rain, a 3-year-old son of War Pass, broke his cannon bone while working out Wednesday morning over the Belmont Park training track. He had to be euthanized. His exercise rider, Bobby Perillo, was taken to North Shore University Hospital complaining of back pain, according to Bruce Brown, the trainer of Soldier Inthe Rain.

Soldier Inthe Rain was purchased privately by Brown and Epona Racing Stable after the horse won a $50,000 claiming race at Keeneland in October. In his first start for Brown and Epona, Soldier Inthe Rain won a first-level allowance race over Aqueduct’s main track, earning a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.

“He was the best horse in my barn,” Brown said.

The breakdown was one of several incidents that happened in a relatively short period of time on a chilly Wednesday morning at Belmont.

A hotwalker who works for trainer Assaf Ronen was kicked in the hand by a horse and was taken to the hospital to be examined. Ronen said the woman “is okay.”

Three exercise riders had to be taken to local hospitals. A horse that unseated its rider and had run loose and grazed the exercise rider of another horse, trained by Mark Hennig. The unidentified rider of Hennig’s horse was taken to the hospital to be examined for a possible leg injury.

A little while later, another horse had gotten loose and when he came off the track, he spooked a horse trained by Gary Contessa. The Contessa-trained horse unseated its rider, Rigoberto Sepulveda, who was taken to the hospital with a leg injury.

“Wrong place, wrong time,” Contessa said.

At one point, neither of the two ambulances that are required to be in position to monitor the track was available to do so. One was at the hospital, the other was in the barn area, where emergency medical technicians were tending to other incidents in the barn area. Two off-track ambulances were needed to transport backstretch personnel to the hospitals.

Trainer Rick Schosberg had an exercise rider taken to a local hospital after he was hit in the head by the head of a horse he was about to get on in Schosberg’s barn.

These incidents come at a time when horsemen are dealing with skyrocketing rates for workman’s compensation insurance that covers jockeys and exercise riders.

Trainers and owners were required to make an initial premium payment of $1,237.50 by Thursday in order to be eligible to run horses. The New York Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association was hoping to find a way to fund half of the $2,475 premium, but it has not been able to do so.

Trainer Rick Violette, president of both NYTHA and the Jockey Injury Compensation Fund, said he is still exploring other avenues in an attempt to reduce the workman’s comp costs.

“If we can find another carrier that we can do it less expensive or additional funding we will gladly bring the whole price down,” Violette said.