I work in a sport where the focus in on an animal, so I accepted years ago that I had to be OK with the ugly side – that’s breakdowns and catastrophic injuries for those who don’t know.
That doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Today, as the horses rounded the historic Saratoga turn one final time in 2009, a horse was being pulled up. While this doesn’t always mean impending doom – we had a horse eased across the wire earlier on the day – I knew we were headed for trouble when the jock got to the eighth pole and jumped off.
I couldn’t tell ya who won the race or if it was even a close one. I was only interested in the breakdown: Tim Ritvo’s horse Todo K (Kafwain x Scherzando) with the meet’s leading jockey Ramon Dominguez. The outrider got there pretty quick and Ramon was able to keep the horse calm for a bit (not an easy task with a race finishing, a crowd of 29k+, and the potent pain/adrenaline combo), but a right front leg injury was apparent, as he obviously couldn’t put weight on it.
By the time the other horses were coming back to be unsaddled, Todo K’s trainer and grooms were running across the dirt track to get to him. Just as they did, so too did the horse ambulance. And out came the sheet. Except they did a masterful job in shielding folks at eye-level, but for those of us some five stories high, we saw the whole thing.
This – like George Washington in the ’07 Breeders’ Cup Classic or Eight Belles in the ’08 Kentucky Derby – is when I’m beyond grateful for the invention of a needle. See, I was there, crying, at both of those events too. But those times saw staff get the horse to the ground before the fatal shot – this time he was standing.
It wasn’t pretty, nor was it anything I ever want to see again.
Just as it happened, someone shouted the official meet breakdown stats: only 3 in the afternoons (all on the turf) and 1 in the mornings (on the dirt). These are beautiful, fragile creatures and to see harm come to any of them is beyond my comprehension, even if it’s for their own good as the case was today.
Before PETA has a field day, let me say that while breakdowns are tragic and painful, they’re also necessary for us to be OK with in order for us to do what we do every day: you can’t have the highs of Rachel without the lows of Todo.
So I ask you to join me in a prayer for a fallen friend: Todo K.
