Adios starter Eighteen unhurt in morning spill

Eighteen, a 20-1 longshot in Saturday's $500,000 Delvin Miller Adios for 3-year-old pacers at The Meadows after finishing third in his elim, escaped serious injury Friday morning in an incident that left trainer Dr. Ian Moore with four broken ribs.

 

Moore said he has always been careful when training Eighteen because he can be somewhat fractious, but things were tranquil Friday morning when he began to take Eighteen on a jog around The Meadows' racetrack. But the colt became spooked by a tractor and then veered into another horse. Moore told harnessracing.com Friday afternoon while still at a local hospital that he tried to hold on to the runaway horse as long as he could, but that might have been a mistake.

 

"He had been really good today and went one lap around, but when I came up alongside Ronnie Burke a tractor came along really close to me," said Moore, who also shares ownership of Eighteen. "When the tractor came beside me I went into (Burke) and we got hooked up and I got dumped off. I hung onto him for a couple hundred yards and that probably made it worse.

 

"I let go at the winner's circle so maybe that's a good omen," he added with a laugh.

 

Moore, who said he was still awaiting test results from a CAT Scan to determine any further injuries, said Eighteen only had a couple of nicks on his legs and that it would not deter him from racing in the Adios final. Corey Callahan is scheduled to drive the son of Cam's Card Shark from post seven.