27 March 2023 , 09:59
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A leading jockey has had his little finger reattached by surgeons after it was nearly bitten clean off by an unruly horse in the “freakiest” stalls incident.
Pablo Morales, 34, was sitting on his horse in the starting stalls ahead of a race at Tampa Bay Downs in Florida when the runner next to him reared up.
Feeling a burning sensation in his right hand, Morales looked down to see his pinkie finger hanging loose with the bone protruding through his glove.
“I wasn’t sure what happened,” he said. “But when I saw my hand and went into the ambulance, I knew it was really bad.”
He underwent surgery in hospital where the finger was reattached using a pin and wire. This will be removed when surgeons are satisfied the procedure has worked but the jockey, who has ridden more than 2,500 winners, is likely to be sidelined for a number of weeks.
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Initially Morales believed the injury had been caused by a flailing hoof of the horse in the next stall but video evidence offered another explanation.
“I was actually bitten by the horse next to me,” he wrote on Twitter. “I didn’t know what happened because I just felt a hit and then my finger was hanging."
He added: “When I looked at the video, it was like we both reached that point at the same time. My horse took a fast step forward, and when I reached with my hand to hold on to the bar (between the stalls), she (Azulene) reached to the left with her head and we met in the middle.
“I was getting ready to grab some mane again (for the start), and when I saw my finger I thought, Oh my God, this is terrible.
“The timing was unbelievable. It’s the freakiest accident I’ve ever been involved in.”