A car crash at 40 MPH can cause serious injury, or even be fatal. When L. C. Tornado broke down last week, it was a grim reminder of the gruesome side of Horseracing.In the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, March 4, LC Tornado entered the starting gate at Aqueduct Racetrack. It was business as usual for the five year old mare. Another month, another race, this one an allowance contest at six furlongs, for mares, four years old and up. The purse of the event was set at 43,000 dollars, just an ordinary race on an unremarkable day. Ridden by Abel Castellano, she went off at odds of 14 to 1, well behind the odds-on favorite Five Siblings.
When the gates opened, the horses bolted out and set a fast pace through the first quarter mile. As they rounded the backstretch and headed for home, LC tornado shifted into another year and closed the gap between her and the leader, Five Siblings. As they passed the half mile marker it was obvious that Five Siblings was losing speed and couldn’t maintain the pace. Meanwhile, LC Tornado was hitting her stride. Legs stretched and digging in, she made the odds-on favorite look as if she was standing still.
The final furlong featured only these two competitors. With less than a 16th of a mile to go, LC Tornado was neck and neck with Five Siblings, who was fading fast, and it appeared that victory was not only certain, but would be achieved with ease. Horse players with money on the long shot realized they were going to win big. Track announcer John Imbriale raised his voice with enthusiasm, anticipating LC Tornado’s impressive effort.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, LC Tornado broke her right knee. Abruptly, her head was driven immediately into the ground and jockey Castellano was ejected forward. The mare had bent in an unnatural way, and it was later discovered that in the fall, she also broken her neck and had died on impact. Castellano was rushed to the local hospital where he was treated for a broken collarbone. The distance that LC Tornado had put between her and the rest of the field was the only thing that saved the jockey from being trampled. The breakdown was graphic and grusome. Because it happened so close to the finish line, everyone in attendance saw the tragedy unfold right before their very eyes. The track collectively groaned and Imbriale, professional that he is, did everything he could to finish calling the race. Unfortunately, the spill was too brutal to ignore and his concern and shock were all too evident, but appropriate, a reflection of the horrific nature of the breakdown.
Although breakdowns and injuries are preventable, they are simply sometimes inevitable. The gruesome event, along with the fact that it happened in plain view, is a stark reminder that a racehorse breaking down is the most painful thing in all of sports. Nothing even comes close. Maybe at times a pitcher will be struck in the head with a batted ball, or a hockey puck will hit a player in the head. A breakdown, however, is certain death for the horse and at least a significant injury to the jockey.
The incident was eerily similar to the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, when Bayakoa battled with Go for Wand. For the entire length of the stretch, Go for Wand remained ahead of Bayakoa by a neck in a thrilling battle down to the wire. Suddenly she broke a leg and went down hard, in full view of a packed house and a national television audience. The terrible sight was one in which no racing fan will ever forget.
It is a reality that the National Thoroughbred Racing Association is trying to prevent breakdowns, as evidenced by supporting the recent installation of Polytrack around the entire country. The safety of thoroughbreds is one of the few racing concerns shared by everyone in the industry.
It is also an issue that the NTRA wishes to hide. While researching this piece the Breeders’ Cup web site was consulted. The website maintains an archive of all Breeders’ Cup races. In its video replay of the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, the breakdown of Go for Wand has been deleted from the stretch run. Furthermore, a review of last year’s BC Distaff race neither shows or mentions the backstretch breakdown of Pine Island, another horrible injury ending in the horse is death. Although it can be argued that the NTRA has done this out of respect for the horses and their owners, the fact remains that these events did occur, and should be shown in order to acknowledge that breakdowns are still a problem that needs to be addressed.
For LC tornado, it was her final furlong. For the racing industry, it was a tragic reminder that the safety of thoroughbreds is a major concern that cannot be ignored.
2 replies on “The Final Furlong”
The Polytrack…Noooooo…OK That polytrack can help the horses get injured less often, but they need to work on it so that it doesn’t kill the speed so much.
very interesting I liked this article. It’s not often that we see articles about horse racing on the site, and if we do, I am not really excited about it. But I really liked this one, it was interesting and I understood it which is a bonus because I don’t know that much about the sport.