SPRINGFIELD — A two-year-old harness racing filly died in what its owner called “a one in a billion freak accident” at the Illinois State Fair Grandstand on Aug. 13.
Lil Kell, which was also trained by Dennis Gardner of West Salem, Illinois, bucked its driver, Travis Seekman, got loose, jumped the hub rail into the infield and fell into the tunnel on the infield of the racetrack.
The tunnel was a 20- to 30-foot drop.
The accident happened prior to the first wagering race on Wednesday’s card.
Gardner told The State Journal-Register the filly might have been spooked by one of the carnival rides.
“Once they lose their driver, they’re just a wild horse, a loose horse,” said Gardner, a veteran horseman who brought 11 horses to Springfield from southern Illinois for the State Fair.
Illinois Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Lori Harlan, in a text message to the SJ-R Thursday morning, confirmed the horse’s injuries were fatal.
Gardner was in the paddock area when he heard the Grandstand announcer tell the crowd that a horse had reared up and thrown its driver.
“You automatically want to see (if it’s your horse),” Gardner said, “and it was.”
An eyewitness to the accident from the Grandstand, who didn’t want his name used on the record, said the horse bucked Seekman in turn 2 in a warmup to the race.
The horse jumped the inside rail into the infield with the sulky, or cart, still attached, the eyewitness said, ran along the edge of the track on the infield, got to the north end of the track, tried jumping back on to the track and then fell into the concrete tunnel.
“You just heard the whole crowd gasp at that point when we saw (her) go over,” the eyewitness said. “It was like slow motion. It was like, ‘Holy s—.’
“It’s one of those things you don’t think you’re ever going to see.”
An outrider–a horseman supervising the event–tried to reach the horse, Gardner said, “but we couldn’t get to her in time. It was the worst place it could’ve happened (on the infield). We thought she was going to stop where they drive in under the track. I don’t know if the cart scared her or what, but she baled off in there.”
Gardner said the filly died “pretty well instantaneously.” Track veterinarians were on hand, he added.
The eyewitness said the track announcer acknowledged to the crowd that the horse had “died of catastrophic injuries.”
Lil Kell had made “five or six starts, but was green,” Gardner said. He purchased her as a yearling last fall.
Gardner said he wasn’t “blaming anyone. I appreciate everybody that helped out, the state workers. In a deal like this, you’re not prepared. (These horses are) like our kids.
“Everybody comes together in a bad time like this. We might not like each other on the racetrack, but after it’s over, we’re all kind of buddies.”
There were no other injuries in the incident.
Officials from the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association did not return calls to the SJ-R. The IHHA is not-for-profit which preserves, promotes and maintains harness racing in the state.
The full slate of harness racing went off Wednesday after about a 40-minute delay.
There is a racing card beginning at 11 a.m. on Aug. 14.
(This story has been updated to add a photo gallery, to correct an earlier inaccuracy and to add new information.)
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie. Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Harness racing horse dies in catastrophic accident at Illinois State Fair
Reporting by Steven Spearie and Ryan Mahan, Springfield State Journal- Register / State Journal-Register
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