Pair of Incidents Mar Saratoga Turf Marathon

[Wandering Eyes]

One horse was pulled up and eventually vanned off the track, while another suffered a catastrophic injury during the running of Sunday's fourth race at Saratoga.

A field of six went to the post in the 11-furlong allowance on a turf course officially labeled 'good' for Sunday's racing after riding yielding Saturday following heavy rains that canceled the last four races on Friday. The Graham Motion-trained Frivole (Fr) (Anodin {Ire}) saved ground from her inside draw and maintained that position through the stretch for the first time, but her action became choppy nearing the entrance to the clubhouse turn and she was pulled up and out of the race by jockey Manny Franco and eventually vanned off the track, according to a tweet from NYRA's Keith McCalmont. Motion told Daily Racing Form that Franco pulled her up “out of an abundance of caution” and that the filly was back in her stall.

Ever Summer (Summer Front), favored off a narrow defeat in a soft-turf renewal of the GIII Robert G. Dick Memorial S. July 1, sat in third position as they raced down the backstretch and was making a menacing three-wide move nearing the quarter pole when she took a bad step and fell. Irad Ortiz, Jr., who had picked up the mount when Joel Rosario took off his Sunday rides, was cast to the turf course. According to McCalmont's tweet, the Brereton Jones homebred, trained by Christophe Clement, suffered an injury to her left fore and could not be saved. Ortiz, Jr. visited first aid on site and was passed fit to accept his remaining mounts.

The two incidents come in the immediate aftermath of Saturday's GI Test S., in which the undefeated Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) suffered a life-ending injury.

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