DEL MAR, Calif. _ In a freak accident during morning training, two horses died on the Del Mar dirt surface after a horse unseated his rider, started running the wrong way and collided with another horse.
At about 6:40 a.m., a horse trained by Carla Gaines unseated its rider and was running loose. The horse then ran into Carson Valley, a horse trained by Bob Baffert. The name of the Gaines horse was unavailable. Carson Valley was an unraced 3-year-old.
Assael Espinoza was aboard Carson Valley and was taken to a local hospital complaining of back pain.
"He's OK, he got lucky," said Brian Beach, Espinoza's agent. "It's just a mild sprain of the back. He wasn't riding (Thursday), so he will rest up and hopefully be able to ride this weekend."
It's believed that both horses died on impact and were not euthanized.
"I've maybe seen three (incidents) this devastating," Joe Harper, chief executive at Del Mar, told the San Diego Union Tribune. "Nobody's at fault here. It's one of those freak things. I don't know how else to describe it."
"It happened so fast," Baffert told the Paulick Report. "I'm still in shock."
It's widely accepted that a riderless horse is one of the most dangerous parts of training, racing or on the backstretch. During training a warning horn goes off every time a horse loses its rider, telling everyone else on the track to use extreme caution until the horse is brought under control.
In another Del Mar development, a San Diego Superior Court judge did not rule on the granting of a restraining order that would have allowed trainer Jerry Hollendorfer to stable horses and run at Del Mar.
The judge said the case was so complex that he needed more time to review the material and that a ruling would be made on July 26.
Hollendorfer was banned by the Stronach Group, which includes Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields, from racing at its tracks. Del Mar has remained silent about its stance on Hollendorfer but has not granted him stall space or the ability to race.
