It was nothing short of a miracle that nobody, horses and jockeys, was seriously hurt in Saturday's Haskell Invitational :
But we have seen that before. That is what top-class Thoroughbreds are supposed to do in the heat of battle. What we hardly ever see is what Midnight Bourbon did that very well may saved this from being a catastrophe. There is nothing as dangerous as a fallen horse with other horses directly behind running 40 miles an hour and having to somehow avoid the horse on the ground. The reason many believed Midnight Bourbon had fallen is that he pretty much was on the ground. All four legs had crumbled in a heap and he had nothing from which he could push off to get back on his feet. When a horse is running that fast and suddenly clips heels and heads to the ground it has to be a frightening experience, and all he has is his survival instinct, his strength, and a rare athleticism to avoid falling and endangering himself, his rider, and the horses behind him. Midnight Bourbon exhibited all three and somehow was able to pick himself off the ground and get back on his feet. But in doing so, his rider, unlike Jeremy Rose on Afleet Alex in that amazing 2005 Preakness, went flying off the side of his neck landing in front of him.
Once again, the element that makes the Thoroughbred such a remarkable athlete took over. Lopez crouched in the fetal position for protection, found himself under Midnight Bourbon, who had both foreleg legs in front of Lopez and both back legs behind, and those back legs had to go somewhere. Still running at a good speed and no doubt shaken, the colt was able to angle his body slightly to the side and then lift his legs over the fallen jockey. Had he not made the effort to lift his legs they no doubt would have come down hard on Lopez.
It reminds me a bit of what Alysheba went through in the 1987 Kentucky Derby, he nearly went down, but managed to upright himself thanks to the quick thinking of his jockey, Chris McCarron.
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