Apprentice jockey Juan Saez dies after fall

Juan Saez, the 17-year-old apprentice jockey considered a rising star in horse racing, died late Tuesday night from head injuries sustained in a spill during the eighth race at Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, Ind.

The track southeast of Indianapolis has canceled racing Wednesday.

Saez's mount, Montezuma Express, is believed to have clipped heels on the turn with the horse in front of him, Paddy's Notes, causing Montezuma Express to fall and unseat Saez. A trailing horse, Masaru, was unable to avoid Montezuma Express and also fell, dislodging jockey Ricardo Santana Jr.

Saez was airlifted to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. He died just before 11 p.m., said Terry Meyocks, national manager of the Jockeys' Guild. Meyocks was in contact with jockeys and jockey agents who went to the hospital, as well as Guild regional manager Jeff Johnston, who drove from Cincinnati to Methodist as soon as he heard about the spill.

Meyocks said that according to Guild records, Saez is the 153rd jockey to die from racing injuries since 1940.

"Juan was such a talented and sweet kid, with a promising future," said John Velazquez, Chairman of the Jockeys' Guild. "It is like losing a member of the family. We are competing against one another on the track, but off of the track, we are all very close."

Saez is the brother of New York jockey Luis Saez, who was in Panama for their father's birthday and was trying to get a private plane back, said Joe Paulley, a Kentucky-based jockey agent whose father, Julio Espinoza, was Juan Saez' agent. Instead, Espinoza and Richard dePass, agent for Luis Saez, are making arrangements for the body to be shipped to Panama. Espinoza said that because of that, the family will stay in its home country.

Juan Saez lived with Espinoza and his family in Louisville, with the agent frequently driving him to Indiana Downs or Keeneland to ride. However, Tuesday Saez rode with a friend, with Espinoza and his wife driving to the hospital after the spill, Paulley said.

Back in the spring, Espinoza was telling a reporter that he had a rider coming in from Panama that would win the Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice. Saez was that jockey, the two forming a very close bond, with Espinoza not only handling his business but serving as his father away from home.

"If I start crying, you'll have to bear with me," he said when reached by phone Wednesday morning. "I've been high on him as a young rider forever. But the kind of kid he was is the main thing. A really good kid. He'd smile all the time – we called him Smiley, he was so happy all the time. He died doing what he loved to do. His dream was to win the Derby, and he was well on his way."

Espinoza was called by Indiana Grand's clerk of scale after the spill, puzzling him because Saez was supposed to be through riding after the seventh race. The agent also said they weren't even planning to be at the track Tuesday -- that they were to fly out of Lexington after Sunday's races at Keeneland to go to New York for a couple of days. That was to be Saez' next circuit after this fall, and Espinoza wanted to introduce him to horsemen.

But Espinoza said that when the flight was canceled because of lack of a crew, the trip was called off.

Espinoza said he was told Saez was revived "like three different times… But he had way too much brain damage.

"… How many times do you see somebody, yeah, you clip heels, you go down, you break a collarbone?" said the agent, a former jockey. "But where it hurts is a jockey getting killed. The sad part about it is I wasn't even supposed to be there … but the flight was canceled."

Stan Bowker, Indiana's senior state steward, said officials are still investigating the incident and expect to file a report Friday. But he said based on the stewards' review so far, "I don't blame anybody" for the spill.

Paulley's own rider, Marcelino Pedroza, went down when his mount in the same race suffered fatal injuries at the top of the stretch. The mishaps are believed to be unrelated. Pedroza escaped serious injury.

"I got a text that Marcelino went down," Paulley said. "A couple of trainers there told me it was really, really serious for Juan. They informed us they had to revive him at the track, so we knew his heart was trying to stop on him. I knew he had bleeding from his ears. I don't know if we knew he was going to die, but we definitely knew it was going to be catastrophic."

Saez was not originally scheduled to ride the race, but picked up the mount on Montezuma Express, who sustained cuts but otherwise seemed fine back at Churchill Downs Wednesday morning. (Indiana Grand in its first press advisory said Montezuma Express was euthanized.)

Rick Hiles, trainer of Montezuma Express, was at Indiana Grand for the race and later went to the hospital. He said he talked to the track stewards Wednesday morning to determine what happened. Hiles said he was told that the race video is at a bad angle, but apparently the horse in front of Saez was tiring and the jockey was unable to get out, clipping heels.

Saez wound up on Montezuma Express because original rider Jeremy Rose didn't show up and his first replacement, Malcolm Franklin, took off the late races because he was sick.

"He was a good kid and he was going to be a great rider," Hiles said by phone. "I feel bad because he really wasn't supposed to be on my horse…. Juan comes and visits me at the barn all the time. I just said, 'Hey Juan, how about riding this horse for me?' He said, 'OK, Mr. Hiles.' My horse is as sound as he could be. He had plenty of horse, it's just the horse in front of him backed up in front of his face and the rider on the outside wouldn't let him out

"...When they get in tight light that and you're trying to control those monsters…. I feel so bad. Just one of those freak accidents -- 17-year-old with his life ahead of him."

The mood at Churchill Downs Wednesday morning was of sorrow. Most people asked about Saez mentioned the teenager's brilliant smile and the fact he always seemed happy.

"I don't when, in my career, I've seen somebody come along that I thought had more potential," said Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, one of the first trainers to use Saez when he started riding in Kentucky in late June. "He was riding so far beyond his years already: making decisions, patience, everything you don't see in a boy 17 years old. It's absolutely tragic. I really thought he could be the next Shoemaker or Pat Day."

Saez had become one of Lukas' main riders and he said he planned to ride the youngster on a filly in the Breeders' Cup.

"To have that much talent, to have it snuffed out at this age is just unbelievable," said Lukas. "It just takes all the joy out of life. It's not fair."

Said trainer Jimmy Baker: "It's a terrible tragedy for all of us. He was a very nice young man, very talented. Probably could have been a Hall of Famer. It's just sad to see anything like this happen to anybody on the racetrack. We're all in mourning right now."

Trainer Billy Gowan, who put Saez on his first winner in the United States, said: "It makes you sick to your stomach. I've won six races this year, and he was on three of them."

Meyocks first met Juan when the teenager came to the U.S. after graduating for Panama's famed Laffit Pincay Jr. riding school, saying "he was following his brother, always joined at the hip with his brother in Florida."

"It's so sad," Meyocks said. "He had so much upside…. He went through the jockey school in Panama. He was prepared for being a jockey. He would have been a superstar. He had so much natural ability. I'd noticed a big difference in him when I saw him this summer. He was so mature and grown up than when he was a little kid down at Gulfstream and everywhere his brother was at, he was with him.

"It's so unfortunate for the family."

The Jockeys' Guild has made safety its No. 1 priority, pushing for improved helmets and safety vests, padded starting gates and safety rails, as well as working for better insurance and worker's compensation for riders and supporting the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. But he acknowledged injuries can never be eliminated in such a dangerous profession.

Meyocks said Indiana Grand has been supportive of the safety initiatives and has raised money for the PDJF.

"Fortunately it's very rare that this happens," Paulley said. "We're very lucky it doesn't happen more. You just have to thank your stars. We get worried about not having work for a while or a jock gets hurt and is out a couple of months. (But) that's the best-case scenario when you see this happen."