A jockey remains in hospital and one horse is dead after an incident on the Woodbine racing track in northwest Toronto left two riders injured.
The accident happened late Wednesday during the third race of the night. A horse named Oliver's Strike tripped and fell less than a kilometre from the finish line. Chad Beckon, the jockey riding the horse, was thrown during the fall.
The horse rolled over Beckon and Simon Husbands, the jockey following closely behind, was unable to avoid the accident.
Husbands, riding Kensington Oval, tripped over Oliver's Strike and clipped Beckon.
Both jockeys were rushed to hospital but witnesses said the men were conscious when they were whisked away by paramedics to Etobicoke General Hospital. Husbands has since been released but Beckon remains under the care of doctors at Sunnybrook hospital.
He had been placed into an induced coma, but is now out of it, the Toronto Star reported.
Oliver's Strike had to be euthanized as he suffered two broken legs during the accident. Kensington Oval was not injured. The horse belongs to Gus Schickedanz, a Toronto real estate developer well-known in racing circles for his award-winning horses.
It is now believed the horse fell because of a heart attack.
Beckon, 28, has been a full-time jockey at Woodbine since 2004 while Husbands has been riding at the Rexdale-area entertainment complex for the last 10 years.
Sandy Hawley, a four-times Queen's Plate winner, told CTV's Canada AM that yesterday's accident was "unfortunate" but may have very well been unavoidable.
"Sometimes you have time to react and sometimes something's wrong and you pull the horse up and everything's fine but unfortunately, this was an accident that happened so fast you don't have time to even react," he said. "It's a very unfortunate spill."
In March, eight horses and eight drivers were injured when a horse stumbled during a race at Woodbine. No one was seriously injured in that incident.
The Queen's Plate race, which has run uninterrupted since 1860, takes place on Sunday.
