So what happened?

Going around the first turn his bit broke, the jockey lost control and the Eightyfiveinafifty ran off the track, breaking through a rail and then leaping another rail heading off the grounds. His jockey, Jorge Chavez, fell off sometime after the crash through the first rail. Luckily the horse was caught and miraculously was pretty much OK except for a gash on his leg requiring 14 stitches. Chavez was taken to the hospital and appears to be OK as well.

A day that began with such high hopes and excitement ended with the horse very likely being taken off the Derby trail. Preparing for the Derby is a very carefully planned thing. A horse only gets one shot to run in the Derby since it is a race for 3-year old horses and any glitch in the plan can spoils a horse’s chances for getting to the big race.

Quality Road is a perfect example of this. Last year Quality Road looked like he was going to be going to the Derby as the favorite. He’d had some hoof problems early on but had apparently overcome them. He’d broken the Gulfstream track record in the Florida Derby in March 09. But then the hoof problems reemerged shortly after. He was taken out of training to heal up and missed the opportunity for the Derby. He ended 2009 with a freak out at the starting gate at Breeders Cup (read more about that here). Yesterday he was back at Gulfstream for his second start as a 4-year old.

So, what happened?

He broke his own track record and won by 12-3/4 lengths in the Donn Handicap. You can’t make stories like this up!

The 4-yo Elusive Quality colt, who is owned by Edward Evans, had run the gambit of racing highs and and lows in 2009. The winner of  the Gr I Florida Derby in March when trained by Jimmy Jerkins, the horse was switched to Todd Pletcher in June and came back to set the track record for 6 ½ furlongs (1:13 3/5) while winning the Gr II Amsterdam at Saratoga in August.

In between those two races he was sidelined with a recurring quarter crack issue that kept him out of the Triple Crown. Quality Road hit another,  more emotional, low when freaking out and being scratched at the starting gate in the  Breeders’ Cup Classic. Although it wasn’t mentioned on the ESPN coverage, it seems the low flying TV helicopter hovering over the starting gate was what spooked the horse.

You can hear the helicopter clearly in the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGfrr8CFuIw

Jay Slender the starter from Santa Anita that day told Jay Hovdey from the DRF that “I didn’t know anything about that horse before, and I haven’t looked at any replays. There’s only one thing I thought of that could have set the horse off – that damn TV helicopter flying above the gate, because it was loud.”

After being vanned back to New York  (he was still too upset to get on a plane) Quality Road began working with former NYRA starter  Bob Duncan who  knows how to calm horses that are getting into the gate.

Bob Duncan and Quality Road at Belmont photo by Barbara D. Livingston in the DRF

Chris Baker, the farm manager for Evans was quoted in the Daily Racing Form “We’re focusing now on what we hope to be a very productive 2010 campaign that puts him (Quality Road)  in position to be champion older horse and Horse of the Year.”

Look for his next start to be in the Gr I Donn Handicap at Gulf Stream Park on February 6th, the day before the Super Bowl which is just down the road in Dolphin Stadium.

I admit that I have a soft spot for the horse after what happened to him at gate in the Classic. He’ll probably have to face Rachel Alexandra at some point, and Summer Bird again, but if this star-crossed runner is improving like I think he is… we may be talking about the Horse of the Year in 2010.