Laurel Jockeys Escape Serious Injury After Spill

Jockeys Horacio Karamanos, Trevor McCarthy, and Jomar Torres all escaped serious injury following a three-horse spill in the  sixth race Jan. 11 at Laurel Park.

All three riders were taken to the hospital for evaluation and released Friday night. Karamanos was at Laurel Saturday morning and is scheduled to ride Devine Mischief in the $100,000 What a Summer Stakes.

"He's doing OK," Karamanos' agent, Frank Douglas, said. "He came out this morning and worked a couple horses, and he's riding this afternoon. He just went to the hospital to get checked out and make sure that he's OK. He got released last night about 8 (p.m.)."

Maryland's leading rider in 2014 and 2016 and coming off Laurel's fall meet championship, McCarthy took off all his mounts this weekend and is hoping to return to action next week, agent Scott Silver said.

"He's sore and banged up a little bit—luckily nothing major that we know about at the moment," Silver said. "He's off for the weekend, and we'll see how we are for next week. We're going to try to be back next week, but we'll see how he's feeling.

"He got lucky, in the sense that he didn't get trampled, and he didn't get run over by his own horse. It was a miracle that he didn't get badly hurt. I only watched it the one time, but from what everyone's telling me, it's amazing he escaped the way he did. We certainly didn't want to miss today by any means, but if we've got to miss a week or two, I'll take it."

Torres was replaced on his two mounts Sunday. He is named in one race Sunday at Laurel.

"He's sore ... but he's OK. Everything cleared at the hospital last night," said Torres' agent, Tom Stift. "I was at Delaware, and as soon as I saw it, I packed a bag and started heading towards Baltimore. It's amazing. He's going to take off and hopefully start back riding next week."

The spill happened on the far turn in the maiden claiming event for 3-year-old fillies, when Tuffy's Way stumbled and fell while racing third, which sent McCarthy to the ground near the rail. Lucky Dilly was right behind, fell over Tuffy's Way, and unseated Karamanos.

Torres was trailing the field on Kimberly B. and collided with Tuffy's Way as she scrambled to her feet, which flipped Torres head over heels. Both Tuffy's Way and Kimberly B. were euthanized.