Jockeys Carrasco, Ferrer Seriously Injured at Delaware

Story provided courtesy of The Racing Biz.

Jockeys Victor Carrasco and Jose Ferrer were seriously injured Sept. 14 after five horses fell during the running of the third race at Delaware Park.

Carrasco was aboard Really, who was on the lead approaching the far turn going about one mile on the turf, when his mount stumbled and fell, starting a chain reaction that wound up involving five of the seven horses in the field. Golden Earrings and Ferrer were behind Really and fell over the 3-year-old filly. Babie Monster, Pamzine, and My Tootsy also fell.

The horses were all racing for claiming tags of between $20,000 and $25,000.

Carrasco and Ferrer were both transported to Christiana Hospital, which is located directly behind Delaware Park. Carrasco suffered fractures of the fibia and tibia of his right leg and was scheduled for surgery Sept. 15.

Ferrer fractured eight ribs and also had a collapsed lung. The other riders involved, Jomar Torres, Edwin Rivera, and Andrew Wolfsont, escaped injury in the incident. Torres went on to ride several races later on the card, winning the seventh aboard Ridgemont High. All of the horses escaped serious injury.

Madame Curie and Showreel (GB), the only two to avoid the spill, finished first and second, respectively. They were perched in second and third and outside the leader at the time of the accident.

Carrasco, voted the nation's top apprentice rider in 2013, led the Laurel Park summer meeting with 36 wins after returning from a shoulder injury in May and had ridden 11 winners at the current Delaware meeting at the time of the spill.

Ferrer, who was enjoying a revival to his journeyman career, had just finished the recently completed Monmouth Park meeting as second leading rider and had four wins at Delaware Park. He was scheduled to ride Grand Prix in the Charles Town Oaks (G3) Sept. 23.

The race involving the spill was the first turf race scheduled on Thursday's program. The turf was listed as "soft" prior to the race, but was changed to "firm" on the race chart after. Delaware Park spokesman Chris Sobocinski said Sept. 15 that the change was made by the chart caller after evaluating the fractions of the race. Delaware ran three races on the turf Sept. 13 on an afternoon that featured intermittent showers. The condition of the turf course for Wednesday's races was listed as "good."

Delaware Park also took its races off the turf in advance for racing Sept. 16, although a statement from the track said, "inspections did not reveal any concerns with the course."

Additional reporting by Jeremy Balan.