McCarron, Lipham Injured in 5-Horse Santa Anita Spill

Chris McCarron, the nation’s leading jockey, and Terry Lipham, who survived two painful accidents at Del Mar in the last two years, were treated Thursday night for injuries suffered earlier in the day in a five-horse spill that almost wiped out the entire field in the eighth race at Santa Anita.

McCarron broke his left leg, and Lipham underwent surgery to have his spleen removed. The latter also suffered a cracked rib and a punctured lung in a chain-reaction spill at the three-eighths pole of a $45,000 allowance race that included several top horses.

A nurse at Arcadia Methodist Hospital, where McCarron and Lipham were taken, said both jockeys were in stable condition Thursday night.

Hatim won the mile race by seven lengths over Innamorato, those two being the only horses to finish.

Encolure, Lipham’s horse, was trying to take the lead when a front leg snapped. Encolure went down, sending Lipham flying, and four horses behind Encolure tripped, stumbled and fell.

Encolure, a 4-year-old colt who was a multiple stakes winner and a second-place finisher in the Arkansas and Super derbies last year, was later destroyed.

The other horses apparently escaped serious injury, and jockeys Rafael Meza, Laffit Pincay and Gary Stevens were examined in Santa Anita’s first-aid room and released.

The 31-year-old McCarron, bidding for his fourth national riding title, had just returned to action Oct. 1 after suffering a broken shoulder blade in a spill at Del Mar Sept. 6. Through Sunday, Daily Racing Form statistics credited McCarron’s mounts with more than $9 million in purses this year, giving him a lead of about $500,000 over Jose Santos.

McCarron had expected to have several mounts in the seven-race $10-million Breeders’ Cup series at Santa Anita Nov. 1. McCarron rode Sacahuista to victory in the Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita Oct. 5, and she probably will be favored in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes.

McCarron also was scheduled to ride Turkoman, a Horse of the Year candidate, in the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic. Because of his Del Mar injury, McCarron missed the mount on Turkoman as he won the Marlboro Cup with Stevens aboard at Belmont Park last month.

Thursday’s injury also removed McCarron from a busy stakes schedule this weekend. He was to ride Hopeful Word today in the $130,000 Breeders’ Cup Stakes at Bay Meadows and had mounts on Demon’s Begone Saturday in the $250,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont and on Mountain Bear Sunday in the $100,000 Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita.

Lipham, who will be 42 next month, was trampled by three horses in August 1985 at Del Mar. He suffered serious inner-ear and eye injuries and walked with a cane before finally returning to action more than five months later. This past season at Del Mar, Lipham suffered back injuries in an accident and was sidelined for a week.

“Terry was coherent afterward,” Lipham’s agent, Hoot Fanning, said of Thursday’s spill. “But he was bleeding internally and in a lot of pain.”