Davis Escapes Serious Injury After Horse Breaks Down

Robbie Davis, Del Mar’s second leading rider, escaped serious injury Monday when his mount in the third race shattered a foreleg nearing the finish line and sent the jockey crashing to the Del Mar track.

Luckily, there were no horses following when Davis fell, preventing any chance of an accident similar to last October’s fatal spill at Belmont Park in which jockey Mike Venezia was killed when he went down beneath the hoofs of a horse ridden by Davis. Davis was so traumatized by that experience that he seriously considered retirement.

After Monday’s incident, Davis was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in nearby La Jolla for precautionary X-rays and CAT scan, after which the 28-year-old Idaho native was released in the company of his wife, Marguerite. His mount, the 3-year-old gelding Go Boberiba, was destroyed.

Davis’s agent, Jeff Franklin, also was with the rider at the hospital. Franklin noted that Davis was in good spirits in spite of overall body soreness and back pain that was diagnosed as a possible cervical sprain. It was not known how much riding time, if any, Davis will miss.

“If I know him, he’ll want to be galloping horses tomorrow morning,” Franklin said. “He was cursing his luck, because he was sure he had the race won when it happened.”

Davis was riding Go Boberiba for the first time in the one-mile event for high-priced claimers. The horse’s regular rider, Pat Valenzuela, began a five-day suspension Monday, otherwise he would have been in the saddle.

After laying just off the pace set by Well Aware through the first seven furlongs, Davis was moving Go Boberiba to the lead as the field approached the sixteenth pole.

It was at that point Go Boberiba’s left foreleg snapped near the ankle. Davis was thrown forward and slightly to the left, making contact with Well Aware to the inside as he fell.

Ray Sibille, riding Well Aware, had the best view.

“I heard the leg pop and saw the horse’s head go down,” Sibille said. “It looked like Robbie fell underneath my horse, but it happened so fast I couldn’t tell if my horse got him or not.”

Fortunately for Davis, there were no horses trailing Go Boberiba at the time. The eventual winner of the race, By No Means, closed along the inside, while the other two runners, Scout of Fortune and Shady Pine, were finishing toward the middle of the track.

The Daily Racing Form’s Jon White observed that Davis should consider himself lucky.

“I’m sure even he will tell you that if he had to go down, he could not have diagrammed it better to survive,” White said. “We all know Robbie remembers when another jockey wasn’t as lucky.”

Instead of retiring after Venezia’s death, Davis chose to resurrect his career in California, and after successful meetings at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park he has found himself battling for the lead in the local standings with Laffit Pincay.

Going into Monday’s program, Davis had ridden 12 winners through the first 11 days of the Del Mar meet to trail Pincay by one.