(Photo by Coady Photography)
The 3-year-old Party Time was in critical condition Saturday afternoon after getting loose during training at Keeneland, jumping the outer rail on the backside and plummeting down the steep drop off to the service road.
Trainer Wayne Catalano said Party Time was jogging back after training and spooked from the large crowd on the rail as part of Keeneland’s popular Breakfast With the Works program on Saturday mornings. Party Time unseated his exercise rider in front of the grandstand, got away from the outrider trying to catch the Pulpit colt and ran around the first turn before sailing over the rail.
Party Time was vanned to the famed Rood & Riddle equine hospital in an attempt to save his life.
“He ran loose and I guess he ran scared because he was trying to jump the fence here and there,” Catalano said. “Then he headed toward the backside and when he got to the fence he just cleared the fence, the hedge, everything. So he went down. I don’t know how deep that is. It’s straight down, somebody said it’s 30 feet.
“… He’s at the clinic trying to be saved. It looks like he might be paralyzed. He’s not moving his back end, hasn’t gotten up.”
Party Time, owned by major Catalano client Gary and Mary West, finished sixth in a $50,000 claiming race Oct. 8 at Keeneland.
Catalano scratched his two horses, both owned by the Wests, scheduled to run Saturday afternoon. Catalano said there was no connection.
“The main thing is nobody got hurt,” he said.