Two horses die in Belmont Park barn fire

Volleying between grief and gratitude, trainer Wayne Potts was back at Belmont Park Wednesday morning, tending to the 52 horses of his who survived Tuesday evening’s barn fire, which took the lives of two of his horses.

“It could have been a lot worse, I could have lost everything and had nothing left,” Potts said Wednesday morning in Belmont’s barn 48, one of six barns where Potts now has horses stabled.

A fire in barn 60 broke out shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday. Potts said he had 48 of his horses stabled in that barn including American Sailor, a 9-year-old graded stakes winner, and Beastie D, an unraced 3-year-old New York-bred, who both died. Those two horses were stabled right behind each other, Potts said.

Trainer Jeffrey Englehart also had horses stabled in that barn and they all escaped unharmed, according to Englehart.

“Everyone is good,” Englehart said. “All the horses luckily and humans are good.”

No humans were injured, though three people were treated briefly on-site for smoke inhalation, according to the New York Racing Association.

The fire appeared to be largely contained to those two stalls as the barn remained fully intact. According to NYRA, the sprinkler system did function properly, which, along with the efforts of the Elmont Fire Department, helped to extinguish the fire quickly.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the New York State Fire Marshal and Nassau County fire officials.

Potts, who was not on the grounds when the fire started, hurried back to the barn from his nearby apartment after being notified of the situation and rushed right into the barn to try and get the horses out.

“When I got here the barn was full of smoke, I just ran in and started dropping webbings and ripping gates off the walls and doing the best that I could do,” Potts said. “There were so many people that were helping, it was crazy with all the help that was here. If it happened at 1 or 2 in the morning, everyone’s gone, I would have never gotten them out.”

Potts said among the people who helped him get horses to safety was a female exercise rider, Makaia Carpenter, who he would hand the horses off to and she would lead them out of the barn.

“I was throwing halters on and she was getting them out,” Potts said.

Attempts to reach Carpenter, who works for trainer Marialice Coffey, were unsuccessful.

Among the horsemen who also assisted were trainer Robert Falcone Jr, and Ray Handal.

“It was very surreal going there seeing 15 fire trucks,” Handal said. “It was sad and powerful at the same moment. The whole racing community came together, everybody doing our part trying to help.”

“I’m just thankful to everybody who stepped up, all the trainers and the backstretch workers here, all the other trainers assisting me with stalls and placing our horses,” Potts said. “We’ll get everything back in order the next couple of days and we’ll be back on track.”

Potts had a terrific winter meet in New York, winning 16 races at Aqueduct from 124 starters. Though he was planning to send the bulk of his string to Monmouth Park on May 1, he hopes to leave 12 to 20 horses at Belmont for that meet which opens next Thursday.

Potts had five horses entered to run at Aqueduct on Friday, but said he would scratch four of them, including Control Group, who was entered in a second-level New York-bred allowance.

“It wouldn’t be fair to the horses if I tried to run them,” Potts said.

Potts said the only horse he would run is Trappeze Artist in race 2. That horse was not stabled in barn 60.

Later on Wednesday, Potts, along with his veterinarian, planned to go over all of his horses that survived the fire.

“We’ll go through and listen to everybody and make sure everybody’s functioning well,” Potts said. “As long as everybody’s good I’ll resume training [Thursday].”

This is the third barn fire at Belmont in the last 35 years. In 1986, 45 horses died in a fire in barn 48, while in 1999 three horses perished in a fire in barn 8.