Jockeys Horacio Karamanos, Trevor McCarthy and Jomar Torres escaped serious injury following a three-horse spill in the sixth race, a $35,000 maiden claiming event for 3-year-old fillies, at Laurel Park Friday. The riders, who were taken to the hospital for evaluation, were released later that night. Karamanos, who was back at Laurel Saturday morning, finished second aboard Devine Mischief (Into Mischief) in the What a Summer S. later in the afternoon.
“He's doing OK,” 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 o'clock.”
Coming off Laurel's fall meet championship, McCarthy is taking off all mounts this weekend and hopes to return to action next week, according to agent Scott Silver said. Maryland's leading rider in 2014 and 2016, McCarthy had been named to ride in a trio of stakes on Saturday's card.
“He's sore and banged up a little bit; luckily nothing major that we know about at the moment,” said Silver. “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 added, “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 races Sunday at Laurel and one race Wednesday, Jan. 16 at Charles Town.
“He's sore …but he's OK,” said agent Tom Stift. “Everything cleared at the hospital last night. 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 occurred on the far turn when stalker Tuffy's Way (Jump Start) stumbled and fell, sending McCarthy to the ground near the rail. Lucky Dilly (Honorable Dillon), who was right behind, tripped over the fallen horse, unseating Karamanos, while Torres was trailing the field on Kimberly B. (Tritap), who collided with Tuffy's Way. Both Tuffy's Way and Kimberly B. were euthanized.
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