Exercise Rider Dies in Training Accident at Churchill

Exercise rider Odanis Acuna died after a training accident in the early hours of Nov. 10 at Churchill Downs. The long-time member of trainer Kenny McPeek's team sustained fatal injuries to his head and neck when the horse he was working broke down. 

"I can't even comprehend it," McPeek said.

For more than a decade, Acuna worked for McPeek, in addition to holding down a second job at a local feed store. McPeek said in all his time as a trainer, he has never witnessed an accident of this severity during training. 

"He's worked for me for ten years—never been late, loved his work, worked a second job," McPeek said of Acuna. "He was a family man. He has three children—three boys, two are twins—he's married and a native of Cuba. He was so great to have on the team, and we're all just sick."

According to a news release from Churchill Downs, the accident occurred around 5:45 a.m. ET, when the horse Odanis was breezing suddenly fell about a sixteenth of a mile before the finish line. The horse has since been identified as New York Harbor, an unraced 2-year-old Verrazano  colt out of the Crafty Friend mare Friend of a Friend.

The horse was euthanized shortly after and training was cancelled for the rest of the morning. 

"We had two 2-year-olds working in a set," McPeek said. "(New York Harbor) was supposed to make his first start next weekend and evidently broke either one or both sesamoids in the workout. Sadly Odanis went down with the horse. 

"As long as I've been at it, I've had a rider hurt an arm or a leg—never anything major. We're just all really sad and trying to work through it."

Sherry Stanley, executive director of the Backside Learning Center at Churchill Downs, described Acuna in the Churchill release as "the happiest, most joyful person," dedicated to bringing his family in Cuba over to join him in the U.S. McPeek said prior to the accident, Acuna was in the process of trying to buy a house. 

"He was the hardest worker," Stanley said. "I know everyone always says that about people on the backside, but this guy was unbelievable. He worked as an exercise rider and went running out the gates after training every day to get on the feed trucks. He would work every day until 6 or 7 at night and always had a smile on his face. No one ever saw him angry or sad. This is just an unbelievable tragedy."

Plans to create a GoFundMe page to help offer aid to Acuna's family are already in place, and McPeek said he hoped the crowd-funding page would be live by the end of the day. In the meantime the trainer is working with Churchill Downs to help contact Acuna's family in Cuba to make the necessary arrangements going forward. 

"He was a good man—a very good man," McPeek said. "It's not an easy day. Just a really bad day. Our heart was swallowed."

Churchill Downs observed a moment of silence for Acuna at 12:30 p.m. ET Saturday, prior to the start of the first race at the track.